Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings

The Molineux Hotel

Molineux Street

The Molineux Hotel at its lowest ebb.

Listing:  Grade II*. c.1720 with mid C18 additions and C19 additions. For Benjamin Molineux, ironmaster. The grounds were open to the public in 1857 to become Wolverhampton's first public park.

Pevsner:  the facade to the ring road is of c.1740-50. ... five bays, three storeys, characteristic ensemble. A Georgian 'S' wing and a Victorian turret complete the loose composition.

Literature:  English Heritage, Constructive Conservation in Practice, 2008.  Amidst the praise of their own contribution to the restoration, English Heritage say:  "The beautiful, but badly damaged, interiors of the Rococo and oak rooms were restored using fragments of the original interiors.  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. ... Life has been extended for one of Wolverhampton's best-loved landmarks; one that was at serious risk of being lost"". 

Comment:   First built around 1720, possibly by its first recorded owner, John Rotton. The house and 8 acres of land were acquired in 1744 by Benjamin Molineux, a rich ironmaster and banker.  It was then just on the outskirts of the built up area and is a typical example of what the new rich of Wolverhampton were providing for themselves at a time when they still lived in the town centre. At the front it had a good view to St. Peter's church; at the back it had fine views of what was then considered to be some of the best and most picturesque countryside in England, with the views extending into Wales.  It had extensive walled gardens running down the hill to where the Molineux football ground now is. Benjamin Molineux and his family greatly extended the building and the rear elevation and return are, if anything, richer than the front with two elaborate venetian windows. The interior was once splendid, noted particularly for its fine central staircase, wood panelled rooms and fine plasterwork.

The building was known as Molineux House until in 1871, after becoming a hotel.  The extensive grounds at the rear were not simply available as a park, but were used for anything which might entertain, and turn a profit. Even the Exhibition of Staffordshire Arts and Industry, 1869 was held in its grounds. It became particularly well known for sporting events, especially bicycle races, which were attended by vast numbers of people.  Several of the local competitors made their own bikes, then started making them for others.  Arguably this was the start of the Wolverhampton cycle industry and, from that, the car and motorbike industry. When Wolverhampton Wanderers started to get aspirations they created their ground behind the hotel and partly on the hotel's grounds; the ground is, of course, still known as the Molineux.

The rear of the building before its major deterioration and restoration. Photo: David Clare.

In 1901 the hotel was acquired by the local brewery, William Butler & Co.  It was, for long, much used for businessmen's lunches and for functions of all sorts.  Much of the hotel's land at the rear was sold off and then the hotel became cut off by the building of the ring road past its front door in 1969 and it eventually closed in 1979. What happened thereafter is a bit of a saga.

But nothing ever happened and the whole building became more and more derelict. The then Borough Council took a lot of flak for not doing something about it. But they did use the somewhat clumsy and limited powers available to them under listed building legislation and spent considerable sums in trying to keep it weather proof.  Doing more was difficult in a time of severe economic depression, when the council had no money and there was no private money for practically any sort of development.  In any event the building seemed to be under attack by vandals; for example, a large hole mysteriously appeared in the roof immediately above the fine wooden central staircase.

Then Peter Maddox, the Wolverhampton developer, acquired the premises and tried many ways to put together a deal which would save the building and provide a return.  In November 1999 a deal was achieved which included the Borough Council's agreeing to underwrite the restoration of this landmark with £200,000 of the public's money. That would cover any shortfall after taking into account the contributions made by Advantage West Midlands and English Heritage - and maybe anyone else who could be persuaded to contribute to a total cost estimated at £2.2 million. The plan was to turn the building into offices. 

That deal failed when the proposed tenant of the new offices backed out and a new one could not be found.  At that stage the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust carried out a  feasibility study to see if another financial package could be put together.  The building gradually got worse and worse, with the clock tower leaning over more and more.  Peter Maddox had agreed to sell the property to what was now the city council when, in June 2003, a fire broke out inside the building and it was gutted.

Peter Maddox could then see nothing for it but to demolish the building. The council thought it could still be saved. They did a deal with Peter Maddox and the sale went ahead, the council relying on promises of money from Advantage West Midlands and others.

The upshot of all this is that by mid-2004 (when the photo above was taken)  the building was shrouded in scaffolding and orange safety nets, while people were beavering away to restore the shell and at least some elements of the interior. The cranes, shown above, were used to let people down into the shell, in a cage, from which they darted out to remove the debris left from the fire. When that dangerous task was finished work on the shell started.

The contractors were Sapcotes, which seems to have been a good thing.  But the company failed and the contracting work was carried on and completed by Linfords - which also seems to have been a good thing. In 2005 the wraps and scaffolding came off, the clock turret  was popped back on and the bare shell of the interior was revealed to public inspection.

The rear, garden side of the building during      restoration.

Inside, one room still carried some very good plaster work and such bits of the staircase and the wood panelling as had survived were brought back to be re-installed.  The city council decided to apply for National Lottery Heritage funding to demolish the Victorian wing, turn the whole into the City Archives and build an archive store roughly where the Victorian wing had been.  At the same time they started marketing the building generally - presumably in case the archives scheme failed.

The main front in February 2009, shortly before the re-opening of the Archives.  Work on the gardens was under way at the time.

Internally the staircase and two other rooms have been restored to their original condition.  The rest of the building maintains the original layout of the rooms, including odd changes in floor levels, and the woodwork has been largely created to match the period.  All the glass in the windows is hand made glass, adding greatly to the appearance both from within and without. 

One of the rooms almost completed.  In this area the rooms had to be stripped back to the bare brick and everything else replaced in a sympathetic style.

Some of the main staircase survived, enough to enable this beautifully finished restoration to be made.  Modern requirements meant that the upper levels had to be adjusted somewhat but the principle of the staircase becoming less elaborate as higher floors were reached, has been maintained.  Likewise, the skirting boards in the rooms get shorter as you ascend to the servant's quarters.  This staircase was put back in place as almost the last operation in the restoration.

Somehow at least 75% of the plasterwork, in the room at the back with the two venetian windows, also survived.  This has been splendidly restored and the room, now known as the Rococo Room, is probably the best room in Wolverhampton.  

The same area of plasterwork after restoration.

The original restoration contractors, William Sapcote and Sons, seemed to know what they were doing when it came to restoration and so handed over the restoration of the plasterwork to Trumpers Ltd., a specialist plastering company from Birmingham, who had done much restoration work for the National Trust and others.  (In due course Trumpers became incorporated into Sapcotes and then the whole firm failed). 

There is a number of other possible candidates as Italian stuccoists were not uncommon: the Atari brothers,  Fancesco Serena and Bagutti were some of the busiest and best known.  By the mid-18th century there were also many skilled English stuccoists.  On large commissions they worked together in partnership and Italians and English worked together in these arrangements.  But it is interesting that Vassalli, Serena and the two Ataris worked together on the plasterwork for Ditchley House, Oxfordshire, where the architect was Smith of Warwick.  And Smith of Warwick probably built Giffard House in 1727-29.  So might there be some connection?  In any event Trumpers' identification of the work as being by Vassalli - and they were in no doubt about it - is as reliable as we are likely to get.