Portsmouth City Council knocked down the empty Drift in the City building, which created the new view of the war memorial.
New public realm paving, seating and lighting will be installed in the space, in Isambard Brunel Road, where the former bar stood empty since February 2013, apart from six months of temporary occupation.
Cllr Ben Dowling (pictured above), the cabinet member for regeneration, said: "This has opened up views of the war memorial that the people of Portsmouth haven’t been able to enjoy for decades.
"The council's electrical engineers did a great job lighting the war memorial ahead of the one hundredth year Remembrance Sunday commemorations last November and it's fantastic to be able to enjoy even better views of that now that this unused building has been knocked down.
"The demolition of the building has also made space for new, vibrant and attractive public city centre space and given us the chance to work up exciting plans for landscaping work which retains the existing trees and improves the entrance to Victoria Park.
"We're doing everything we can to make Portsmouth a better place to live and work and the quality of the public realm in the city centre is a really important part of what we're doing."
