“We are waiting for the next phase to start, hopefully in the Autumn of this year”
Austins department store needs no introduction.
Those who lived in Derry have their own memories of shopping in the grand building in the heart of the city, and were saddened to see it close in 2016.
Austins has been part of the fabric of Derry for 120 years and now we can take a look inside the restoration works to ensure it remains this way for generations to come.
We spoke to Helen Quigley, Strategic Projects Advisor with the Inner City Trust and Karl Pedersen, partner of Mullarkey Pedersen Architects about the ongoing works.
Helen said: “First of all, we were delighted when the Minister said that he would be giving the money to acquire it and then from that we worked very quickly to make sure that we were going to be hitting the ground running.
“The journey has been exciting, the people of the city are excited about the building and what it is going to become.
“The building itself, as you can see you, we have got in and got the preliminary works done, all the prep work and we have reported back to our funders. We are waiting for the next phase to start, hopefully in the Autumn of this year.”
The Austins restoration project is not the first for the Inner City Trust, having restored the Bishop’s Gate building previously.
Helen highlighted the importance of bringing these legacy buildings back to life.
She said: “These old buildings, if they are properly looked after, can survive for a long time.
“Just like the Bishop’s Gate building that we repaired and opened in 2016, that will stand for the next 100 years without any major intervention and Austins will be the same.
“People have fabulous memories of being in Austins and what Austins means to them and Christmas shopping and we are really enthused by the public and the interest they have taken in it.
“We sincerely hope they will be pleased when the building is eventually finished and occupied.”
Karl Pedersen gave Belfast Live an insight into the work that has gone in to saving the Austins building.
He said: “It has been joyful, everything has been positive here; what we have uncovered in the building and things we have discovered going along.
“I am from Derry originally so I’ve been familiar with it all my life but I’ve also been able to discover things about the building that not even the previous owners knew, as we’ve started to open it up and investigate and see what it is made of and what was sitting behind the shop front fittings they had.
“It’s a great project to work on and one of the benefits too is that we’ve got a fantastic client, Inner City Trust, when you look around the town you’ll see everything they’ve done here and Austins can add to that legacy that we already have.
“We have the right ingredients, we have a fantastic building to work with, a fantastic client and hopefully come September we will have a fantastic budget to work with too.”
Karl also revealed surprising elements of the restoration work, including elements of the Austins building that had been hidden.
He said: “There were a few things that we discovered here that were a surprise, we discovered huge windows that had been covered up. It showed how ambitious and how cutting edge this building was when it was built 120 years ago.
“Generally, we were pleasantly surprised with the condition, which is testament to those who built it all those years ago.
“There are some areas which need our help but there is so much of the original fabric that we are able to maintain and that is what we want to do because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.”
For those taking on the project, it is essential that the original features of Austins remain within the building.
Karl said: “It is 100% essential that we retain as much of the original fabric as we possibly can.
“The staircase in this building, everyone talks about it and has a memory of the slight tilt which increases as you rise through the building. That needs some help but we’re able to reuse that existing staircase.”
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