WORK on converting the old Royal Alex into flats has now started in earnest. By the end of October 2011 the old nurses’ quarters, which can be seen from Dyke Road, had been partially demolished.

It is a bitter-sweet moment for many of us. Over the next couple of months the nurses quarters, the old laundry block, the Victoria villa and the Elizabeth ward on Clifton Hill will all go the same way.

But work on restoring the main building, which will be converted into flats, is also underway. Initially the contractors erected scaffolding to help protect the main building.

Two new blocks of flats are beinning to take shape. Work on converting the main building into flats and building the new blocks of flats behind is likely to take three years.

On 23rd February 2011 the council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve Taylor Wimpey’s plan to convert the main hospital building. It was the culmination of the association’s long campaign to save the Alex.

But the start of work was delayed for five months by legal red tape. It took the intervention of the chair and deputy chairman of the planning committee to get things moving again following a week in which most of the lead on the cupolas was stolen.