The sun was shining in the Westside as we headed out on Friday afternoon - refurbishment work is now well under way at Bonhoga, led by née gibson architects and supported by funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust Capital Grants Scheme.
Since March, builders from JDC Shetland have been on site carrying out essential improvements. Although we initially planned to reopen in 2024, the timeline has shifted slightly due to unforeseen delays - not uncommon in projects of this scale - but we're delighted to bring you this latest update to show you how things are going so far.
It's a bit bizarre to see Bonhoga covered in scaffolding (inside and out), the walls all stripped back to the bare bones, wooden flooring removed. The roof tiles are currently being replaced, as are the windows. Speaking of which, the windows in the gallery caused a bit of confusion for the builders - have you ever noticed that the number on the outside doesn't always match the number on the inside? This is because depending on which exhibition was using the space, we could cover or reveal as many windows as needed for the right amount of lighting! Our previous Maintenance Technician Angus was a whizz at coming up with solutions on how to do this, to make it hardly noticeable.
Whilst removing the plasterboard in the shop, the builders also came across some writing on the walls left behind by previous contractors working on the site - including one disheartened message of there being a lack of trouts in the burn. Similarly, downstairs in the cafe, it was amusing to see that the menu board still had "vegan scones available" and "Jude's plant-based vanilla bean ice cream" for £3.
Though the plan for Bonhoga's refurbishment is that it should look very similar to how it was before the work began, you can see in the photos below that it certainly doesn't mean nothing will have changed.
Thanks to everyone who has shown support for us and Bonhoga during this process - we’ll continue to post updates as the work progresses, so stay tuned!
