Work at the premises known locally as the Porterhouse Bar hit a snag when the chimney became unstable last week.
The chimney has now been demolished. While they were doing this the back wall collapsed leaving the rest of the building unstable.
During a meeting on site today (Thursday) with the Demolition Contractor, Historic Buildings and Site Engineer, assessments concluded with a decision to take as much of the building down as necessary.
With high winds predicted for tomorrow night, (Friday), contractors were hoping to get as much done as possible tomorrow (Friday), with a fear that if the winds picked up the roof would land in the road.
An adjacent building has also been affected with some cracking internally.
While it is a considerable inconvenience, public safety is a priority.
Hopefully roads will be open normally over the weekend – but it could possibly be Monday or Tuesday of next week. It really depends on conditions.
In the meantime I would appeal to members of the public and motorists to avoid the Waterside area if possible to negate some of the traffic issues, concluded Bradley
