A derelict pub famed for its Art Deco design is a step closer to being saved after workers started repairing its leaking roof.
Scaffolding was erected last week around the Iron Duke on Jellicoe Road to help construction workers from Stroods fix the timbers and replace a membrane on top of the building.
The repairs will cost approximately £200,000, are expected to take about eight weeks, and are the first stage in a longer project which hopes to fully restore the Grade II listed pub.
Darren Barker, managing director of the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust (GYPT), which owns the building, said the repairs will secure the pub so that no more water is coming in and it is not going to deteriorate any longer.
He said that restoration work could then begin by the end of the year, with hopes the pub could reopen by winter 2025.
In 2022, the GYPT was provisionally awarded £2m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore the Iron Duke, which has been empty since 2008.
The group has already been granted round one development funding of £293,356, allowing it to progress with its plans.
The next step will see the fund consider detailed proposals before a final decision is made on the full funding award of £2,025,698 for a project with total costs of £2.5m.
The restoration will be a combined effort between the GYPT and Zaks, a chain of Norfolk restaurants.
Mr Barker said: "There are a lot of misconceptions about what Zak's are planning to do.
"It's not going to be a burger bar. It will be a pub with a food offer.
"Nothing we do will compromise the art deco nature of the building," he added.
The work will take the pub back to its 1930s fixtures and fittings.
Mr Barker said the trust has enough photographic evidence to do a "faithful restoration".
"The end use is going to be fitted around the building. We won't change the building to accommodate the use," he said.
Last year, the GYPT held a public consultation that received almost 600 responses both online and in person.
According to the trust, the results showed that 94pc of respondents wanted a pub with food offer, while 4pc wanted the building reused as just a pub.
Jack Isbell, assistant contract manager for Strood's, said he has worked on restoration and regeneration projects at other buildings around the country.
"I love to see things brought back to their shining glory," he said.
Jeremy Stacey, the architect, said: "It's a fabulous building and a unique site. There are not many places like it."
He said when the restoration work is finished it will be "an extraordinary place to visit".
The Friends of Iron Duke group have long campaigned for the pub to reopen and ensured it became a listed building.
History of the Iron Duke
The Iron Duke was the work of the architect Arthur W Ecclestone, who designed a number of pubs both before and after the Second World War.
Others include the Clipper Schooner in Great Yarmouth and the Links Hotel in Gorleston.
Despite being incomplete, the Iron Duke opened in 1940 to serve the soldiers manning anti-aircraft guns on North Denes.
It was finished in 1948, with its counters made out of teak from Admiral Jellicoe’s flagship, HMS Iron Duke, which led the British fleet in the Battle of Jutland.
Little of the original fit-out remains, however, with the bar now comprising a flimsy replacement, possibly dating from the 1970s.
Rain hoppers in a 1930s style are among the eye-catching period details that remain, along with two falcons that stood above the former Lacon's pub which are in safe storage.
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