QUEEN Victoria is shining bright and white, the signs are on the Premier Inn walls and the beds are being taken into the hotel’s 60 bedrooms as Blackburn’s £34 million Cathedral Quarter takes shape.

The six-storey office block is being cleaned and prepared for occupation as efforts to find tenants for the building are stepped up.

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The limestone floor to its reception area is being laid while the hotel restaurant and kitchen are now fitted out.

Paving for the public realm proceeds apace and work on the final part of the public transport interchange opposite the railway station is well under way.

The 110-year-old Carrera marble statue of Queen Victoria has been cleaned by specialist restorers and masons Stone Central of St Helens ,who are repairing her arm and hand for reattachment before contractors Eric Wright Construction hand the development over at the end of September.

Next month the plinth from which the 19th century monarch will supervise her new realm will be resurfaced with clean bright stone to match the statue.

Work on the £6million suite of clergy accommodation for the Cathedral, complete will cloister garden, is going well with the walls rendered and windows ready to fit.

Blackburn with Darwen council regeneration boss Cllr Phil Riley said: “People can now really see this fantastic development taking shape.

“Queen Victoria is now cleaner and brighter than she has been for several decades.

“The letting process for the office bock is going well and we hope to have major announcements shortly. People can see how this development is going to transform their town centre as they look across the developing public realm to the historic central statue.”

Eric Wright’s project manager Steve Rawlinson said yesterday: “It’s going really well. Queen Victoria has been cleaned and her arm and hand sent for repair to the specialist stonemason restoring her. Her plinth will start being re-faced with clean bright stone slabs to match next month.

“The signs on the Premier Inn and the beds started being brought in today.

“Its rooms are finished with the fitters to come in next and the restaurant and kitchen have been installed.

“This is really exciting time with a buzz on the site as we get ready for handover at the end of next month.”

Canon Andrew Hindley said: “The clergy court is going well.”