Dome restoration halfway finished
THE restoration of the Spanish City Dome has reached the halfway mark, with work on schedule to finish next spring.
The grade II-listed building in Whitley Bay is being turned into a leisure hub with restaurants, cafes and shops under a £10m scheme led by North Tyneside Council.
So far, builders have removed the first floor within the rotunda – opening up views to the top of the Dome – created a new extension, put in a new concrete floor and removed the former shop fronts outside.
The centre of the building is now lined with scaffolding to enable the restoration of ornate features.
Elsewhere, the famous dancing ladies statues that stood above the Dome have been taken away to be restored and are due to be brought back later this year.
Andrew Coleman, project manager at Robertson Construction, said: “We have started to put everything back together now – doing jobs such as plastering and replacing the timber and joists.
“There are currently around 70 people on site and that will increase to about 120.
“Being a local lad from Whitley Bay, it’s a great privilege to be working on this site. It’s an iconic building.
“I’m very happy to come to work every day, I thoroughly enjoy it and it’s a great opportunity.
“We have also been running some public tours in the building. We’ve had over 500 people here and a lot of them are just flabbergasted to see the amount of work that is going into the building.”
Young students have had a chance to see the site and learn more about the construction industry, while a series of heritage skills workshops were held there yesterday.
When work finishes in the spring, the venue will become a food emporium with seafood restaurants, a champagne and oyster bar, tea rooms, ice cream parlour and fish and chip shop as well as retail units.
It will also host functions and weddings.