New landmark on Wolverhampton skyline
Released: 9 October 2007
A new landmark has appeared on the Wolverhampton skyline this week.
Wolverhampton City Council’s contractors yesterday, Monday 8 October, set up a huge crane outside the Molineux Hotel.
Alongside the prominent historic Molineux Hotel building, the crane itself will be a skyline landmark for the next 22 weeks as the new extension to the Hotel is constructed.
Councillor John Reynolds, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Culture, said: “The crane is a very visible sign of the enormous amount of work that is going on inside and outside the building.
“The extension under construction will provide the storage facility for all the archive documents that the City’s Archives and Local Studies service requires and will have capacity for the future growth of archival materials.
“The whole project will result in a fine new home for the Archives and a fitting public use for this restored historic building.”
The crane will be used for moving building materials around within the prominent but restricted site. It will also be used to hoist the lifts into the two lift shafts that are already taking shape, one in the new extension and one inside the main Hotel building.
In coming weeks the clocks will be installed within the clock tower and new windows inserted into a side wing of the old building where the originals were blocked up more than a century ago.
Meanwhile, further restoration work and fitting out inside the listed building is proceeding well. Electrical, plumbing, plastering and other work is being carried out on all three floors.
The Molineux Hotel will become the new home for the city’s Archives and Local Studies service, presently located at Snow Hill in a building earmarked for demolition to make way for the new Summer Row retail and leisure development.
The Heritage Lottery Fund is assisting the City’s Archives project with a substantial grant. The work on site will continue for another year.
Issued by the press office.