Bury St Edmunds townhouse 'unbelievable' 10 years after fire

The restoration of Cupola House in Bury St Edmunds took three years

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."

Part of the building had to pulled down following the 2012 fire

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.

Historic England said the building was both architecturally and historically significant

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".