People in Nottingham have expressed their hopes that work will soon start on the city's historic Guildhall building, two years after plans for a hotel were first revealed. Plans for the site were given the go-ahead in August 2020, with a fine-dining rooftop restaurant and spa among the facilities that will be developed there.
But the building currently remains vacant and graffiti has now been daubed on many of the windows. The entrance to the site has also been boarded up.
The landmark building, on the corner of Burton Street and South Sherwood Street in the city centre, was once home to a magistrates' court and a fire and police station after it was built in 1887. It was most recently occupied by Nottingham City Council, before the authority acquired Loxley House in 2009.
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As much as £130,000 was signed off by Nottingham City Council to spend on structural surveys of the Grade-II listed building and clear pigeon droppings ahead of its transformation. Gaps in the building's exterior had allowed pigeons to infest the building, resulting in the bird mess, which a council report said was "causing significant damage to listed parts of the property".
The council now says that although the hotel plans were agreed in principle, they are still subject to a Section 106 agreement which it says won't be agreed until the Guildhall sale has gone through. A Section 106 agreement is a deal between a developer and planning authority containing conditions for the support of planning permission.
People walking by the Guildhall said it was a shame that it was still vacant. Laura and Ian Hartshorn, 28 and 56, who live just outside Nottingham, said: "We were just walking past it and wondering what the building actually was because it does look beautiful and there is obviously a lot of history to it.
"Hopefully something is done to it soon because it's a shame for a building like that to be empty."
George Wyer, 78, a retired builder from Mapperley, said: "It has been a long time now since the hotel plans came out so I'm surprised that nothing has happened yet. It is an amazing building and I know from being an ex-builder that it's going to be a lot of work to develop it.
"But I do hope it is sooner rather than later and I do think a hotel is good."
Joy Thompson, 59, a university worker from West Bridgford, said: "It is definitely sad to see it as it currently is. I was a student here a long time ago and I think it was the courts then so I've seen it looking a lot better than this.
"I'm sure things will progress before too long, they've just got to be careful with a building with this much history. But it is a shame that it's looking like this at the moment."
Locksley Hotels Ltd and Ascena are leading on the plans to redevelop the property whilst retaining its original listed features. Neither company could be reached for comment.
It comes after a separate plan was recently submitted for the former fire and police station on Shakespeare Street which forms part of the wider Guildhall site. Apart from the Grade II-listed Fire Station House, these buildings would be demolished and replaced with a huge student complex containing 987 beds.
Hilary Silvester, the executive chair of the Nottingham Civic Society, said: "We have been very concerned by the demolition plans and there needs to be recognition of the history of these buildings. One of the major elements is the air raid shelters underneath them used during the Second World War.
"We're seeing so much more interest now in that period of history, so it would be a shame for that to be lost. We're not usually in favour of facadism, where just the front of the building is kept, but I think we're prepared to acknowledge that even that would be better than knocking them down."
The plans for the student accommodation aspect of the site, which would also feature a public food hall, were submitted by The Vita Group in May. Nottingham City Council says contracts have been exchanged, but that it was always the case that this application would not go before the planning committee until towards the end of the year.
A Vita Group spokesperson said: "The current application is for the student accommodation on the site of the old police and fire station and doesn’t impede or affect the future intended plans for the Guildhall. The student accommodation will be launched in 2025. We have no further comment at this stage and look forward to giving more updates as plans and planning applications progress."
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