It may have been Bermuda's oldest and best known department store, but the former vice president of Trimingham's said he was "not bothered at all" to see it demolished.

Andrew Trimingham dismissed the venue which housed his family's famous business ? generally considered as one of Front Street's most treasured landmarks ? as a "shambles of a building".

He said the shop's veranda was constructed in the 1920s, meaning it was nowhere near as historic as many people think.

The rest of the building had a "hotch-potch" feel, he said, because it had been put together piece by piece over a number of decades as the Triminghams expanded their company by acquiring neighbouring stores.

Mr. Trimingham, 72, said he still regretted the demise of the business, but felt people should feel no great loss to see the venue knocked down.

Speaking as workmen began tearing into the building with their wrecking machines yesterday, Mr. Trimingham said: "Everybody's astonished, but it doesn't bother me at all to see the building demolished.

"It's just a matter of passing interest to me. I have memories of the place, but I'm not sentimental at all.

"Once you realise how different parts of the building came about over the years, you can begin to imagine what a shambles of a building it was. It was hotch-potch, all put together. I guess if you call chaos character, then you would say it had character.

"It was my job to oversee alterations to the building's layout. It was an awful place to deal with.

"The building evolved over the years. The thing everybody is being sentimental about isn't historic at all. It had steel put in to strengthen it and the veranda has changed as well. There must be people alive who can still remember the old veranda.

"I think people miss the idea of the store. They miss having the shop. I've heard more than enough people say this Christmas they just didn't know where to shop.

"But by being sentimental about it, you are trying to turn a tiny bit of Hamilton into St. George's."

Mr. Trimingham said the original building was constructed by N.T. Butterfield, the founder of the bank, in the early 1800s.

In the 1850s, it was sold to Mr. Trimingham's grandfather, who had started his business elsewhere in town a few years earlier.

He said the Trimingham family then extended the Front Street building "little by little". A building in Reid Street had been added by the 1870s, the current veranda was built in the 1920s, and a Reid Street sweet shop was later acquired and turned into a lingerie section.

Mr. Trimingham's brother Eldon, 72, the former president of the store, was more sorry to see the place go.

"When you look at anything that has taken a long time to build being torn down in a matter of hours, it's always sad," he said. "But you have to look to the future."

"I would like to remember it as it was. The people made it a wonderful place. We had a wonderful relationship with our staff."

Workmen from BCM McAlpine started tearing down the roof of the historic store last week and demolition work is set to continue until mid-May.

Once the site has been cleared, construction is due to begin on a six-storey office block for Bank of Bermuda. The complex will feature a retail outlet on the ground floor as well as two shops, one on Front Street and one on Reid Street.

The new office block, which will be stepped backwards in a terraced style to lessen the impact on the street scene, should take until May 2009 to complete. It will feature a Front Street facade that fits in with the old Hamilton style of neighbouring stores.

According to the Corporation of Hamilton, no requests for road closure in connection with the demolition have been made to date.

Mayor of Hamilton Sutherland Madeiros said he was sad to see the end of the Trimingham's era but added that the appearance of Front Street would not suffer in the long run.

"The facade of the building had an historical value," he said. "But I believe they are going to recreate the facade with the new building in exactly the same way."