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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.