Work to pull down one of Front Street’s most famous landmark buildings has begun.

It is anticipated that within the next ten weeks there will no sign left of the historic Trimingham’s department store.

Starting from the top demolition workers have commenced by tearing into the roof of the building.

Once it has been totally razed the site will become a new six-storey office block for Bank of Bermuda, which was agreed by planning chiefs in November.

When completed the new building will have a Front Street facade in the style of its neighbours to preserve the old Hamilton look of the city’s famous shopping street.

Above will be the multi-storey office block, which is stepped back in a terraced fashion so that it doesn’t overwhelm the street scene.

The development has met with controversy since it first became known that Bank of Bermuda was seeking to build a towering office complex at the western end of Front Street on the side of Bermuda’s largest and most famous department store.

Trimingham’s closed in the summer of 2005 with the loss of 220 jobs, as a result of falling sales and rising business costs. The retailer set up in 1842 and had been trading continuously since then at a number of Island locations but had its flagship department store on Front Street.

Shortly before it closed Trimingham’s took over the neighbouring rival Smith’s store but this did not improve its fortunes sufficiently for it to continue in business.

The building was bought by Bank of Bermuda and last year it submitted plans for a seven-storey office but was met with a number of refusals to the plan and re-designed schemes until finally being given a green-light for a scaled-down six-storey option.

In the rejected plans for a larger building it had been intended to preserve the original Front Street facade of Trimingham’s as part of the new building, but the approved scheme now does away with all traces of the former store, although the facade of the Front Street first two floors will be replaced by one of similar appearance to the previous store frontage.

The new development will be 115ft tall with bank offices and a Bank of Bermuda retail outlet and two shops on the ground floor, one on Front Street and one on Reid Street.

Construction contractors Bermuda Construction Services has set to work on pulling the building down piece-by-piece. The work is being co-ordinated by BCM McAlpine.

It is thought the demolition work will last between eight and ten weeks.

A video report on the start of the demolition work at Trimingham’s can be viewed at the Royal Gazette website at www.theroyalgazette.com.

Demolition work on landmark store begins