Historic Britannic Hall undergoes major renovation
The Britannic Hall on Main Street is undergoing a major renovation.
Built more than one hundred years ago, the historic building sustained more than 70 percent in damage during hurricanes Irma and Maria last year.
Owner Derek Dunlop told BVI News this week that the roof, railings, and balcony were severely damaged.
Renovation work started on February 1 and is slated for a July completion date.
According to Dunlop, the building will be restored to its original design.
“There is a new roof that’s completed, we have half of the electric and half of the re-plastering finished. We have rebuilt the first floor with reinforced concrete columns and tie it into the original foundations and it has a ring beam to replace the timbre,” he said.
New air-conditioning, floors, kitchen, and washrooms are also part of renovations.
Derek Dunlop
Hefty bill to rebuild
While remaining tight-lipped on the cost of the project, Dunlop said the undertaking is quite pricey.
“If it wasn’t the hurricane, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise,” he said referring to the building’s impeccable state prior to the disasters.
“It is a very historic building. I am very much a conservationist. We have people who have come who were born here and we show them around. I feel very proud and lucky but in those days you never thought about it.”
The Dunlops have been the owners of the Britannic Hall for more than 40 years now. The Crown previously owned the facility and prior to that, a former pirate known as John Hamm is said to have owned the Hall.
It is said the Britannic Hall was one of the main buildings which housed medical staff and members of the legal fraternity.
The two floor and eight-room building now house the offices of Smiths Gore BVI Limited.
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Great to hear you are doing so well Derek.
I hope the repairs are completed soon, any news on Biras ?
Best Wishes
John
Where is that overdue historical walk in main street. Another much needed tourist attraction and a dinner conversation. That might make us more unique in our tourist attraction. As for the traffic, Main street has out grown it.
I have learned something today.
Wonderful….
Good job Pa Derek you are doing well.This site is nice for site seeing for the tourists and will help tourism.
My grand mother knew it as ‘cock roach hall’.
Thank you Mr Dunlop.
Would like to witness, in my life time, monuments that honor the millions of African souls lost at sea;
for those that perished in ship holes;
for those that suffered grave abuse at the auction stalls;
For those that suffered unimaginable torture, amputations and death by the hands of the EU masters of inhumanity to man.
Yes more than monuments of remembrance are required that we may never forget.
A people that made another people rich, triggered their banking and industrial revolutions should also be paid back for centuries of unpaid labor.
A monumental task it would be only if minds and souls chose not to engage in right and truth, which so far has been the human choice.
Indeed, many will respond with the notion that a people, African people should forget their past, as they were forcefully made to forget their language ancestry and heritage.
Why do some so desperately ask and desire the Black African to forget his history and past when he is still hated, oppressed and discriminated against in all aspects of his existence?
If your Daddy committed a crime that he was not punished for, should you his child go to jail?
Yes, if that child is a beneficiary of his father’s crimes, especially crimes of the magnitude perpetuated during that horrific period.
Agreed. I think Britain should sue Rome immediately.
Really funny!
Yes, if that child is a beneficiary of his father’s crimes, especially crimes of the magnitude perpetuated during that horrific period.
What is the significance of this building? I cannot see the plaque to we’ll, I often walk mainstreet and wonder about it