A historic crumbling Leeds landmark is set to be given a new lease of life.
Victorian mansion Nunroyd House was highlighted as being in need of rescue according to a report by conservation charity SAVE Britain’s Heritage.
The former nightclub and iconic Yeadon building is now set to be transformed into a children’s nursery.
Louise Robinson and business partner Jenny Elstub face the challenge of repairing the 19th century stone building after finding a giant hole in the structure’s roof.
Louise said: “My first reaction was how are we going to turn this into a children’s nursery because it was in a bad state of repair but we could see potential.
“It had a quarter of the roof missing for a substantial amount of time.”
She said that it took them a long time to get planning permission because there were concerns from residents and Aireborough Civic Society about whether historical elements would be retained.
Louise added: “We are trying to keep a lot of the historical features because obviously it is a quite well-known building in this area.
“We’ve uncovered original fire places and we found that one room had seven layers of wallpaper.”
They are hoping to complete the building work within six months and aim to have the children’s nursery open by the start of next year.
Pebbles Nursery and Pre-School will be open for children aged from four months old to five and could cater for up to 80 youngsters if they are given the go ahead by Ofsted.
Louise also hoped that the facility, which will create up to 20 new jobs, could become a holiday club for children.
She added: “We’ve already got people putting their name down and some even put their name down before we got planning permission.”
Built around 1890, the water damaged house has been empty for a number of years after running as Brummel’s Nightclub.
Nunroyd House was home to popular philanthropist Jonathan Peate who built Nunroyd Mills with his two brothers in 1868.
The successful cloth manufacturer lived there until his death in 1924.
Comments