The Express & Star chat to the owner of the Grand Palace venue, Wolverhampton, as it is announced that it's no longer on the 'At-Risk' register.

Express & Star

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00:00Hello, I'm James McMirovich, and I'm here at the Grand Palace Wolverhampton.

00:04You might remember it as Darlington Street Methodist Church, which closed back in 2019.

00:10It was a building that was abandoned and possibly facing an unlikely future.

00:14It was actually on the at-risk register.

00:15It was the eighth most at-risk building in the whole country.

00:19But thanks to Rajinder D'Souza and his wife, Cam, they've turned it around.

00:22The Grand Palace is now built on stay, and you've recently had the news that you're no

00:26longer on the at-risk register.

00:27Yeah, that's right.

00:28Good news to hear that we were on the eighth at-risk register, and now we're off the at-risk

00:33register.

00:34It's great news, fantastic news.

00:36So pleased.

00:37And you've put a lot of investment into this place.

00:39You've obviously done a lot of work to build it up and turn it into what it is today.

00:42So can you believe the turnaround that you've made with this place?

00:47It's fantastic.

00:48I can't believe that we've got this stage, honestly.

00:50There was a lot of hurdles on the way with the heritage, but we got there in the end.

00:54You can see yourself.

00:56We're inviting people to come and have a look themselves, what they think of it.

01:00And from the photos, they're saying they're putting it apart.

01:04And what's been the process from taking it over to being told by Heritage England, you're

01:08no longer at risk?

01:09What's been the...

01:10What was the timeline?

01:11The timeline was just over three years.

01:15It was a long time.

01:16We didn't think that we could achieve it, but now we're here, and we're so pleased.

01:22Very good.

01:23Me and my wife are really pleased.

01:24And this is obviously inspectors from Heritage England coming and inspecting the place and

01:27saying, do you know what?

01:28This is actually a good use of a former church.

01:32They're very happy with what they've seen.

01:33They're really happy.

01:34I mean, they wanted to celebrate with us, but for some reason, no one's come down yet.

01:39But it's nice.

01:40It's very good news.

01:41And looking forward, it means that you've obviously can do more with this place.

01:44You can plan more events and put it more out to the public eye.

01:48Definitely.

01:49100%.

01:50100%.

01:51We're looking forward to hosting weddings.

01:52We've hosted four Christmas events here, and we're hosting several weddings as well.

01:57And now it's coming up to wedding season.

02:00We've got quite a few bookings as well.

02:01That's right.

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