Floors are going back into the Laboratory Building at Swansea’s old copperworks, more than a year and a half after contractors found the originals had rotted away completely.
Swansea Council says the grade II listed shell in Landore, next to the Penderyn distillery, could open as a restaurant seating more than 100 people once it is finished.
A Welsh slate roof is the next job, and the council expects the building to be watertight and complete this year. The search for a business to take it on starts shortly.
John Weaver Contractors have been on site around 20 months, repairing stonework, stabilising archways and rebuilding a chimney stack from its own salvaged bricks. GWP Architecture and Coreus Group are also working on the scheme.
The two- and three-storey building has ornate windows and a stone doorcase, and stands beside the Morfa Gates, once a main entrance to the works. The council says it was probably where copper ore arriving from around the world was tested for quality.
Five more things happening within half a mile
The Laboratory Building is the piece furthest along, but it is not the only one. Five other projects are running on or around the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks site.
The two engine houses. Contractors Andrew Scott have been on site since mid-April, and the landmark chimneys are now scaffolded to their summits.
The Vivian Engine House, from 1860, is due to gain a mezzanine floor, a new building linking it to its neighbour, and an outdoor terrace. The Musgrave, built around 1910, holds the only Musgrave Engine in the UK still standing where it was installed.
The council says the restored buildings could eventually hold food, retail and exhibition space.
The bridge coming home. The 1909 Bascule Bridge, a scheduled monument, was lifted out of the Tawe and taken across the city overnight in April. Last week the council appointed Ian Davies Plant to put the 70-tonne span back and reopen the crossing as a footpath and cycle route.
What is under the ground. Digging at the site has turned up what researchers called “internationally significant” evidence of how copper was processed here, in a town that once smelted ore shipped in from around the world.
Getting there on foot and by water. More boating pontoons are planned for the river, and an £8m riverside walkway and cycle path is due to link the city centre to the stadium.
The cable car. Groundworks have started on Skyline Swansea, the £49m cable car and luge attraction on Kilvey Hill, across the river from the copperworks.
The council leader, Rob Stewart, said the copperworks had the potential to become a major leisure destination.
“We’re pushing forward with the restoration of the Tawe River corridor, and Lower Swansea Valley Project,” he said. “Penderyn are there, the two historic engine houses are being restored, and we have plans for more boating pontoons on the river.”
He said the Swans also planned new experiences for fans at the stadium, and that the area had “a fantastic future as part of the better Swansea we’re building”.
The Laboratory Building work is funded through the UK Government’s Local Regeneration Fund, as part of a regeneration programme across the city the council values at £1bn.
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