Molineux Hotel

English Heritage has been very supportive throughout the project. It made a substantial grant towards the initial costs of rescue and restoration, and recognised the importance of saving the building by launching their Buildings at Risk Register from the site. EH also supported the demolition of a late 19th - century addition to the hotel, providing the key to finding a viable new use for the building as the city's Archive and Local Studies Service. Jon Beesley, Urban Design and Conservation Officer, Wolverhampton City Council

The Molineux Hotel is a grade II* listed building on the edge of Wolverhampton city centre. The elegant former residence of the Molineux family, this building of the 1720s became a hotel in the 19th century. In 1889 the hotel and its grounds were purchased by Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, whose stadium is located within the original grounds.

The hotel passed through a succession of owners before it closed and fell into disrepair, when it was added to English Heritage’s Register of Buildings at Risk. We and the local authority searched for a solution, hoping to identify developers who could suggest a sustainable use for the building. Without this, the structure could have been entirely lost, especially after it sustained serious fire damage in 2003. Outright demolition was a possibility but engineering advice from English Heritage gave it a thread of hope for the future.

Then Wolverhampton City Council came to the rescue, suggesting that they might be able to use the building as a home for their archives and local studies service. Convinced of the feasibility of this, English Heritage offered a grant of £200,000 towards the preliminary costs of saving the building. The Heritage Lottery Fund subsequently offered £3.3 million.

The beautiful, but badly damaged, interiors of the Rococo and Oak rooms were restored using fragments of the original interiors as a guide. A less historically significant Victorian extension was demolished to make way for the state-of-the-art archive, without which the entire project could not have been feasible.

Local people will be able enjoy the building when using the public City Archives and Local Studies Service, which will include a conservation studio. Life has been extended for one of Wolverhampton’s best-loved landmarks; one that was at serious risk of being lost.