Remains of historic Wisbech Phoenix Hotel is to be given a face-lift
Work is under-way to safeguard the future of the façade of the historic Phoenix Hotel in Wisbech.
Set on the town's renowned North Brink the Phoenix was completely gutted by fire in 2010 leaving only its Georgian façade standing.
At the time work was carried out to prevent the front wall collapsing with metal supports installed at its back.
Formerly known as the Old White Hart Inn the Phoenix Hotel was being used as a Chinese restaurant at the time of the fire. But soon after the blaze the property's Chinese owner disappeared and all efforts to trace them have so far failed.
Concerned by the now deteriorating façade Wisbech Society and Preservation Trust have stepped in to fund a facelift with the help of a grant from Fenland District Council.
The façade has false windows and doors created to disguise the derelict wall that remains and helping it to maintain the beauty of North Brink.
Unfortunately, these doors and windows have fallen into disrepair and, more recently, deteriorated to the point where ‘windows’ were falling out, greatly detracting from North Brink’s famous architectural beauty and posing a hazard to the public.
David Crouch, treasurer of Wisbech Society, a Civic Trust and Preservation Society, successfully applied for a Changing Views grant from Fenland District for half the cost of the £5,900 make-over, which started last week and is expected to take around a month to complete.
The work, being carried out by Tawn Decorators of Wisbech, has meant the closure of the pavement outside the property and also the suspension of parking. Signs and barriers have been put up with a public highways order granted by Cambridgeshire County Council's Highways Department.
Paul Eden, press officer for the Wisbech Society, said: "The current false windows are to be replaced with new ones, which will have a special plastic or vinyl coating, which will make them much more resistant and long-lasting, they will also make it look a lot more like it did previously and be more in keeping with the rest of North Brink.
"Ideally we need a long term solution but that involves banks and a lot of legal work. In the meantime this work will keep it looking neat and tidy. The façade itself is secure thanks to the metal supports, so it is just about sprucing it up to look tidy and of course to stop bits falling off and potentially hurting someone or causing damage.
"The society regularly talks about the building at its trustee meetings and we realised it needed work doing, rather than saying someone needs to do something we tend to just act and get things done ourselves."
