More than 120 years of history has been reduced to rubble after a two-storey Court Street building was demolished to be replaced with a five-storey office block.

And this has critics seething because they say this is just one more example of Bermuda's history being lost.

One woman said the demolition was "appalling and caused her some grief'', because it was a good example of Bermuda's Victorian architecture that has gone forever.

But Mr. Henry Ming, an architect and chairman of the Bermuda National Trust's historical buildings committee, said the issues involved are more complex than that because owners of historical buildings are faced with a dilemma.

On one hand he said they realise the need for preserving Bermuda's architecture and culture but this comes with a price because many old buildings are expensive to renovate and there is little return on such investments.

Consequently, financial institutions often advise landlords to demolish the property and start anew.

The building in question was located across from Mrs. Lois Browne Evans' law offices. It housed a grocery store in the 1930s and more recently it has been a used as a karate studio and a book and ethnic clothes store called True Reflections.

Built around 1875, the structure was owned by the Hamilton Cooperative Association that began with about 50 shareholders that included the Barritt family, the Gibbons family and an assortment of north-of-Hamilton families.

Mr. Gerald King, 82, a former secretary of the HCA said the organisation is more than 100 years old and was formed to promote business projects.

He said the organisation was an interracial body with prominent white families such as the Gibbons' and Barritts' although the majority of shareholders were black.

Mr. Ted Gauntlett, a chartered surveyor who is in charge of the site, said the previous building was simply uneconomical to operate and provided "quite modest returns''.

Therefore the Cooperative made a decision to knock down the building and replace it with a five-storey office block. Currently they are constructing a tank.

Mr. Ming said this building, although rich in history and traditional Bermudian architecture, was one of several properties that "could not be brought into the 21st century.'' "Hence we have a dilemma here,'' he explained. "Even if it was a preserved building it would have been difficult to do anything with it anyway.

"Typically a tenant looking for office space wants high quality. For someone with an old building, the amount of money they must put in often cannot be realised in a reasonable period of time.'' A second difficulty Mr. Ming said, was that the banks and other financial institutions look at old buildings purely from an investment point of view which is to be expected.

"So often their advice is to knock it down,'' he continued. "The new building codes require buildings to have adequate fire protection and this property had a wooden interior which presents great problems for the owner if he wants to turn the property into office space.

"Add to that the electrical codes, health, structural and safety codes and you can see the potential problems.'' Mr. Ming said that the HAC is not the only landlord who is faced with this dilemma and many make the "ultimate decision'' to demolish.

"One of the reasons why this demolition was acted on swiftly was because their building permit was about to expire. If they had to reapply after October 1, they would have had to resubmit and only God knows what kind of fees that would have cost.

"Bermuda needs to take a long hard look at incentives, they are not currently in place,'' he added. "A lot of our structural heritage is going by the wayside. I don't know what the answers are.

"But how does a person who owns a property like this, derive benefits an example would be tax free materials for upgrading. In the past, the minute you upgrade up go the taxes. So you are even further behind even though you are trying to do something.

"This is just one of several interesting stories that have started to catch up on us. We have to really grasp the bull by the horns and do something very quickly.'' DEMOLISHED -- This 120-year-old Court Street building has been demolished to make way for a five storey office complex. Critics say this is just one more example of Bermuda's heritage being destroyed.