Midhurst North Street closure: Works to fire-damaged buildings in 'final phases'

Engineers were seeing removing large chimneys from the historic Angel Inn hotel in North Street, which was nearly entirely destroyed, along with neighbouring buildings, when a huge fire broke out in March.

A multi-agency effort has seen works to make the buildings safe so that the road can be reopened again.

In a statement today (Thursday, June 15), South Downs National Park provided this update: “This week work has focused on the three large chimneys of the listed buildingswhich were left at serious risk of uncontrolled collapse after the fire. All three chimneys have now been successfully taken down to a safe level.

"The seven-week programme (from 15 May) is well on track. The next phase of the shoring up will be to complete the internal scaffolding and fixings. Once this is completed, final, legally required structural safety inspections will need to be carried out and the hoarding around the scaffolding built.

"Once the hoarding is completed, the National Park Authority will hand over to West Sussex County Council to carry out the necessary road safety and traffic management work so that the road can be reopened in both directions.

"We would like to thank the people of Midhurst who have rallied to support our contractors over the last week. Together we have been working hard to ensure that Midhurst can reopen as soon as possible.”

FAQs specifically around the shoring up work and this can be found at www.southdowns.gov.uk/midhurst-fire-updates/