The Grade II listed Golden Lion in Cannon Hill Park is set for major repairs after over 20 years of decline, backed by a £344,000 Heritage at Risk grant.
00:00The Golden Line has been part of Birmingham's story for more than four centuries.
00:08Built in Derritend in the late 1500s, it was moved piece by piece to Cannon Hill Park in 1911 to save it from demolition.
00:17For the past two decades it has been empty, fenced off and held up by scaffolding.
00:22The Tudor style timber frame has been left to weather, with parts of the building at risk of being lost entirely.
00:28The council now says repairs will start this year, backed by more than £350,000 from the Heritage at Risk Fund.
00:36The money will go towards fixing the roof, chimneys and timber frame, alongside structural repairs to keep the building stable.
00:43Inside, floors, walls, windows and doors will be restored, with French doors added at the rear to improve access.
00:51The goal is to make the Golden Line secure and safe to enter, removing the need for scaffolding checks that currently run to almost £6,000 a year.
00:59Officials warn that doing nothing will mean a bigger built-in future.
01:04Birmingham Conservation Trust is set to take a licence on the building to oversee the work.
01:10It says it wants to work with community groups to find a future use that benefits local people, turning a lung neglected shell into a functional part of the park once again.
01:20The Golden Line is one of 37 historic sites in England, sharing £15 million in government funding, four of them here in the West Midlands.
01:29For now the focus is on the repairs. Once the scaffolding comes down, the bigger challenge will be giving this landmark a purpose, so it doesn't end up locked away for another generation.
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