THIS enormous crane was the reason that a busy street in central Oxford was closed for 19 hours yesterday.

It was used to move equipment for work to rebuild numbers 6-12 George Street.

In order to get the crane in safely, George Street was closed from its junction with Magdalen Street and Cornmarket Street to its junction with Victoria Court from 4am until late evening.

The row of shops, originally built for a YMCA in 1891, is undergoing a £6m redevelopment, which will see an extra storey added to the buildings.

The shops, which formerly housed Going Places travel agent, Internet Exchange cafe and ePlay computer games shop, have been empty for about four years.

London architects, Project Orange, said that the building’s “historic fabric has suffered through many layers of modification and alteration over the decades”.