![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/primarks-bank-buildings-to-open-after-restoration/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127460144_primarkbelfastonedaytogotograndopening24.jpg&description=Image source, PacemakerImage caption, Construction workers dismantled the building and restored it stone by stonePrimark is to reopen its shop at the historic Bank Buildings in Belfast on Tuesday after a "huge undertaking" to restore it following a major fire.The listed building was almost destroyed by the blaze, which burned for three days from 28 August 2018.The reopening follows a £100m investment in the rebuild by Primark, leading to the creation of 300 jobs.A fire service investigation into the cause of the blaze concluded that it had been accidental.Media caption, The landmark building was destroyed by the fire within a matter of hoursOne of the conservation architects who worked on the restoration of the five-storey Bank Buildings said the project was a "mammoth job"."I think all of us looked at the shell that was remaining and wondered was it possible to save it," said Stephen Douglas."There was quite difficult work in the initial days, when it was a dangerous structure, to find out whether it could be saved."There was a lot of disruption and trading was interrupted but at the same time we had a building that was one of the key historic buildings in the centre of Belfast, representing the Victorian heyday of the trading city."Image caption, Staff have been preparing the displays ahead of the reopening on Tuesday morning"Also the social history side of it - everyone in Belfast has some connection with the building, whether we shopped in the building or worked in the building, everyone would have a story to tell.He said that rebuilding the stonework involved hundreds of people, including stonemasons from all over Ireland."It involved not only medieval techniques of guys with hammers on site restoring and repairing stone but craning in new stone quarried in Scotland that weighed two-and-a-half tonnes," he said."[We had to] learn how the building was constructed in the first place as we took it down, to number every stone and detail its condition and then restor){kind=link}
Primark is to reopen its shop at the historic Bank Buildings in Belfast on Tuesday after a “huge undertaking” to restore it following a major fire.
The listed building was almost destroyed by the blaze, which burned for three days from 28 August 2018.
The reopening follows a £100m investment in the rebuild by Primark, leading to the creation of 300 jobs.
A fire service investigation into the cause of the blaze concluded that it had been accidental.
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