Bury St Edmunds townhouse 'unbelievable' 10 years after fire

A civic society said it was "unbelievable" a Grade II listed 17th Century townhouse was still standing 10 years after a fire gutted the building.

Cupola House in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was left as a shell after the blaze began in the kitchen in 2012.

A project to restore it started in 2014 at a cost of more than £1m and included new cupola, a rounded vault-type structure, on the roof.

Martin Taylor, from the Bury Society, said: "It's quite an amazing building."

About 120 people had to be evacuated from the building, which was being used as a restaurant, when the fire broke out.

The five-storey building, on the Traverse, dates back to 1693 and was previously restored in 2004, at a cost of £500,000.

Mr Taylor said after the fire "the ground floor looked like the Mary Celeste", the ship found deserted in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.

"The fire service did a great stop stopping the fire spreading to other buildings," he said.

The Bury Society is a charity which works to grow Bury St Edmunds while retaining its heritage and Mr Taylor said about Cupola House it was "fantastic it's still with us, unbelievably so".

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