A Swindon restaurant which burnt down two years ago has finally reopened.

The Queen's Drive branch of Burger King was burnt down in June 2021 by a large fire that started in its roof.

Many customers inside were mid-meal, which led to a dramatic evacuation and a large emergency service response.

While no-one was hurt in the fire, the building was damaged beyond repair, causing the closure of the town's only store. 

Since then the fast food chain has been rebuilding the restaurant from the ground up and after over two years of being closed the brand new venue opened its doors for the first time on June 29. 

The same team that worked in the building at the time of the fire have all returned following the opening of the new restaurant in what has been described as an "emotional" moment putting to an end a period of time "full of ups and downs".

One member of staff said: "It's been hard sometimes, but we're very grateful we were able to keep working and we did our best to keep serving Swindon and we're so pleased to be back fully open with the brand new restaurant."

Burger King was able to retain staff and continue operating despite the devastation caused by the unexpected blaze by installing a temporary drive-thru pod in the car park of the site.

This meant that customers could still drive in and collect food even while the restaurant's building work took place in the background. 

This pod remained open until earlier this month when it was eventually taken away, and the scaffolding and hoarding that had covered up the restaurant while construction workers worked to rebuild it was taken down - revealing the outside for the first time. 

The new restaurant has been rebuilt and modernised.

On the outside there are plenty of parking spaces both at the front and around the back, there's a spacious drive-thru and a small covered outdoor seating area.

Inside there are bright neon light signs, new furniture, walls, floor and ceiling, a self-serve soft drink machine, a range of seating and new self-serve ordering screens. 

A sign in the window says "The whopper has a new home. Now open".

The fast food joint enjoyed a soft opening on Thursday at reduced operating hours, but it didn't take long until word of mouth had spread online that it had reopened. 

Going forward it will be open from 10am - 10pm.