Hotel's silver service restoration

From an elegant Georgian home, then housing scores of visitors to Wolverhampton before becoming a fire-ravaged shell of its former self, the Molineux Hotel has certainly seen some good and bad times.

But now it is being lovingly restored to its former glory and the Express & Star has been given a behind the scenes glimpse of how the transformation of the Grade II listed building into a new home for the city's archive service is taking shape. The crane, used to moving heavy material around the site, is now ready to be removed and the project is now on the home straight.

The hotel is believed to have originally been erected around the early 18th century but it has additions from the 18th and 19th century.

Originally a home for the Molineux family it became a hotel before its closure in 1979. Since then it has been targeted by vandals and has fallen into disrepair.

And in 2003 its future looke?d bleak after a blaze almost wrecked the building. The roof and floors were destroyed and the walls were left in a dangerous condition.

But over the course of the last couple of years work has been carried out to make it safe again after it was bought by Wolverhampton Council.

The prominent clock tower was added in the 1880s but was destroyed in the fire and replaced by a replica.

Last May contractor company Linford, began work on building a 10,000 square foot extension while completing an interior restoration of the landmark property.

Once it is finished, hopefully by the end of the year, the building will have a new lease of life as home to the city archives and local studies service.

It is envisaged the purpose-built extension will house the historic documents, some of which date back hundreds of years and the restored building will provide both educational space and areas where residents can read up on the city's history.

The two schemes have been completed side by side although both have their own project manager.

Each has had its own hurdles to overcome. The floor levels of the new extension have had to line in with the old building as there are two access points between the buildings. It has also had to be built so it is not affected by the natural elements such as light and water which could potentially damage some of the precious documents.

The restoration project has seen specialist workers brought in to delicately recreate former plasterwork and the noted oak central staircase among other jobs.

Project Manager for the restoration work David Utting has previously worked on the Tower of London and Sudbury Hall among a number of high profile projects. He said workers had been completing the project from the top down, in part because of the work already done on the recreation of the staircase. That saw the top two flights brought in via the roof as they didn't want to run the risk of damaging it by completing other jobs after that was finished.

Work is set to be completed later this year but the archives will not be able to move in until all the features to protect the documents are fully operational.