Hotel plan for Chance glassworks

The once world renowned Chance Brothers glassworks in Palace Drive, Smethwick, is currently undergoing a £60 million revamp. It was planned that the site, which dates back to the 19th century, would be turned into offices and apartments.

But since the downturn in the property market, part owner and project co-ordinator Anthony Copeland has said he has had a change of plan.

"We haven't put in the planning application for it yet but we are in the process of sorting out the designs for a hotel," he said.

"It would be a couple of hundred rooms on the canalside and we are thinking about a Ramada-style hotel which will be business focused. It would be a new build next to some of the old office accommodation."

He added: "The market has really changed since we started so we aren't having the apartments anymore."

The grade II listed seven-storey property is within the Smethwick Summit Canal conservation area and is visible from the elevated part of the M5 and the nearby main railway line.

Popularly known as Chances, the glassworks had a huge reputation in its heyday and around 90 per cent of all reflective glass used for lighthouses around the world was produced by the firm at its site in Smethwick.

The company also supplied glass to the Houses of Parliament and to the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace.

Mr Copeland added: "Things on site have slowed, we are having to do a lot of work with English Heritage and construct things how they would have been constructed in the 1800s. We are just working on the turret at the moment, it is the part of the building that housed the old board room and that is coming along well, it looks fantastic, like a little castle. We are also putting in the arches over the windows, which had been replaced over the years by concrete lintels. It is all moving along and I think it's going to look fantastic."

He added that there are still plans to include some office units in the development.