Specialist construction workers from building firm Robertson Construction have completed the first major stage in the restoration of the Grade II-listed Spanish City Dome at Whitley Bay, Northumberland.
The £10m project is part of North Tyneside Council’s £36m Seafront Master Plan to reinvigorate the coastline between Cullercoats Bay and St Mary’s Island.
The first floor ceiling, which was installed shortly after the dome was built in 1910, has now been removed, opening up double-height space from the bottom to the top of the building and returning the rotunda area to its original splendour.
The operation involved erecting scaffolding inside on the ground floor before experts removed sections of the wooden flooring above piece by piece to open the entire space.
Enabling works are also underway, which will involve demolishing parts of the dome’s west wing. Some sections of the walls will remain to preserve as many original features as possible. Two extensions will also be demolished as part of this first phase of works taking the facade back to how it looked around the 1920s.
Since purchasing the building in 2001, the council has carried out £3m of essential structural repairs to the exterior to make it wind and water-tight.
The sympathetic restoration project involves recreating many original features which have previously been lost and adding new modern extensions at either end as well as a new rear entrance.
Newcastle-based architects ADP Architecture have been appointed to carry out all architectural design services and the project is scheduled for completion around April 2018.
New construction jobs and apprenticeships will be opened up during the work as well as up to 100 employment opportunities which will be created for local people when the dome reopens.
