The Laboratory Building at the historic Hafod Morfa Copperworks site is being reconstructed by John Weaver Contractors in a project driven by Swansea Council.
Future uses of the structure, next to Landore's Penderyn Whisky base, could include it becoming a restaurant for more than 100 diners. It will also be suitable for a range of alternative uses.
The work is part of the council’s ongoing programme to regenerate the Lower Swansea Valley. It is being helped by funding from the UK Government's Local Regeneration Fund.
Council leader Rob Stewart said:
“We’re saving the Laboratory Building and bringing it back into use.”
Council joint deputy leader David Hopkins said:
“The copperworks site is a key part of Swansea’s heritage and we see it becoming a major leisure destination.”
Council cabinet member Elliott King said:
“Penderyn are there, we’ve saved two historic engine houses and we’ve installed a boating pontoon on the river. Further progress on our Lower Swansea Valley Project will be made this year and next.”
The contractors are repairing and enhancing the Laboratory Building’s fabric and fully repairing and refurbishing the exterior and key internal elements.
Initial work at the grade two listed Laboratory Building – thought to date from the second half of the 1800s – saw hundreds of red bricks and other masonry items removed from an unsafe 12m-high chimney stack. They are being cleaned and stored safely for their re-use in the project.
Work on site has seen the Swansea-based contractors stabilise the building, making it safe and undertaking delicate and sensitive stonework repairs.
Preparations are now well underway to make it watertight with measures including the installation of a new Welsh slate roof. Old archways are being stabilised and fitted with new and reused stone, wall cornices are being repaired by expert stonemasons, steelwork is being put in place, a large chimney breast has been rebuilt. Stone, bricks and tiles are being reused.
New external doors and windows will be fitted along with a terrace and level access.
John Weaver Contractors began work on-site around 16 months ago and the project is due to be complete this year. At that point it will be ready for an internal fit-out by the business selected to take it on.
The council said it would shortly be looking for an end tenant for the building.
The Laboratory Building was probably used to test the quality of copper ore coming into the copperworks. The two- and three-storey structure, with ornate windows and a fine stone doorcase, stands next to the Morfa Gates, once a key copperworks entrance.
Partners involved with its transformation include GWP Architecture and Coreus Group.
