Express & Star

Go-ahead to replace Wolverhampton hotel’s wartime hut site with flats

A building behind a Wolverhampton hotel that dates back to the 1940s is to be demolished and a new residential apartment block built on the site.

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The old HORSA hut behind the Connaught Hotel on Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton. Photo: Thorne Architecture

The disused assembly building behind the Connaught Hotel on Tettenhall Road is a HORSA hut – portable classrooms that were brought in under the Education Act of 1944.

It was previously used by the hotel as a hospitality and training annex.

City planners have given the go-ahead for the property – now in a poor state of repair – to be torn down and a four-storey block of 20 residential apartments built in its place.

The application for the new development was made by Mr Jaz Singh on behalf of the hotel.

A statement from Wolverhampton-based Thorne Architecture, acting on behalf of Mr Singh, said: “Whilst the redundant HORSA hut on this site is unlisted and may have long outlived its intended lifespan, HORSA huts are of considerable historic interest.

“Of particular historic interest is a stained glass window which is currently protected by a sheet of plywood. An assessment of the window in 2015 demonstrated that the leadwork and glass itself was sound. However, the painted softwood frame had significantly deteriorated.

“The window will be incorporated into the new apartment building alongside a plaque describing its origins and the relevance of the HORSA hut. The hut itself will be carefully dismantled and a photographic and drawn record made of its layout and construction which will be issued to the local history department at the city archives building in the Molineux Hotel.

“This part of Tettenhall Road is defined by the brick terraces dating from the early 19th Century. The site is located in the Tettenhall Conservation Area – most of it listed.

“The proposed apartments seek to replace a missing part of the street, and by adopting a similar palette of materials to the Georgian buildings, the development doffs its cap to these designated heritage assets.

“This development will plug a gap in the street scene and result in a building which complements the listed frontage buildings whilst being set well back from Tettenhall Road.”

HORSA is the acronym for the ‘Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School-Leaving Age’ – a programme of hut-building in schools introduced by the government to support the expansion of education and provide extra teaching space when the school leaving age was raised after the Second World War.

It is proposed that 45 car parking spaces will be retained for the hotel.