Building work to repair the fire-damaged upper floors of Liverpool’s famous Hard Day’s Night Hotel began this week, with the restoration process likely to take a number of months to complete.
The Beatles-themed hotel on North John Street went ablaze on Valentine’s Day and despite eight fire crews spending 24 hours at the scene, 25 of the hotel’s 110 bedrooms were either damaged or unavailable to book because of safety hazards.
No-one was injured as a result of the fire, and the fire service is yet to release a statement verifying the cause of the blaze.
Guests who were staying in the hotel for the busy Valentine’s weekend had to be moved to the nearby Marriot Hotel in Queen Square.
Hotel manager Mike Dewey has mulled over the refurbishment process with the restoration team and has admitted that the exact location of the fire in the penthouse area will make work that little bit more difficult, though the hotel will remain open during the repairs.
He told JMU Journalism: “The work is underway but it will be a slow process and there will be a lot of careful planning and work that has to go into it over the next few months to get the hotel in excellent condition once again.
“The fact that the fire hit the fourth and fifth floors not only made it difficult to put the fire out in February but it has made the rebuilding of the hotel difficult as well. The fire was over at the right corner of the building if you view it from the front and the design team have quickly realised that work in the corner is going to be a nightmare as well.”
Mr Dewey also stated that last weekend’s Grand National played an important part in delaying the much-needed work until now. He said: “We knew that we had to start it very quickly but we were also aware that the National was just around the corner, so we held off for an extra couple of weeks and that has worked in our favour because we were full for the entire racing event.”
The Hard Day’s Night hotel, which opened in 2008, is in a Grade II-listed building dating back to 1884.
Now that refurbishment work on the hotel has started, Mr Dewey told JMU Journalism: “We’ll take it day by day but things will become clearer as we start stroking things out. We will hopefully have a completion date in mind by the end of next week, but at the minute, it looks as though it could take a couple of months.
“It’s unfortunate, but we need to make sure the work is done properly and to the previous standard.”