A well-established estate agency has moved out of a Northampton town centre street after 31 years.

Richard Greener estate agency has closed its office in Bridge Street, after relocating to Scirocco Close in Moulton Park.

A message on the now vacant shop window reads ‘After 31 years of moving you, we have now moved ourselves’.

According to local reports, Bridge Street has been blighted by controversy for more than a decade now. The former Fat Cats Cafe and Balloon Bar building has been a blight on Bridge Street since a huge fire in January 2012, which was accidentally started by a roofer’s torch. The building, built in 1814-16, has been held up by eyesore scaffolding ever since.

More recently, there was a major fire once again at the building in August 2023, causing the street to be partially closed ever since.

Nick Pattison, of Jackson Stops estate agents in Bridge Street, recently told the press: “It looks a mess. Fat Cats has been like that for ten years now, with all the scaffolding. It’s gradually becoming a bit of a ghost street.

“There are a few businesses leaving to relocate. We’ve been in this building for more than 100 years so it will take a bit more than this to get rid of us, but we are feeling it a bit.”

“We’re sitting here in the dark waiting to see what happens in the future.”