Inside the Duke of Cornwall's £3m reopening

Plymouth's most recognisable hotel has spent the last seven months behind scaffolding, and it's now coming back in stages. The Duke of Cornwall, the Grade II-listed Victorian building in Millbay that opened in 1863 as the city's first luxury hotel, has reopened after a £3m refurbishment, and the good news for anyone wanting to use it is that the public spaces are the first things back.

The ground floor, including the ballroom with its new dance floor, reopened earlier this month, and the lounge and bar are open to everyone. The lounge, wood-panelled with Chesterfield sofas and an open fire in winter, works as well for coffee and cake as it does as a workspace, while the bar is open to walk-ins. The ballroom is already taking bookings for Christmas parties and events next year, so it's worth a look if you're planning ahead. The restaurant and the tower are still being worked on, and the kitchen, which was upgraded last year, has new equipment. There's still scaffolding to be moved to the back so cladding can come off, with roof and guttering work to follow, and the second-floor Haywood Room is closed while its windows are being done, expected back early next year.

If you're staying over, the rooms are returning in phases. The first 30 refurbished bedrooms opened on 30 October, with 17 taken immediately and more due in November; general manager Andy Byles expects 57 to be open within the next three weeks, and all 73 back in use by early next year. There are 72 individually designed rooms in total, from singles, doubles and twins up to Superior and Luxury ranges and four-poster suites. The restaurant, when it's back, keeps its Two AA Rosettes for outstanding culinary achievement and its focus on modern British fine dining, and it's a striking room in itself: circular, with grand pillars, classic décor and a domed ceiling with a chandelier. The hotel is dog-friendly, licensed for civil marriages, and has 25 parking spaces behind it at £7.50 a night.

One of the more curious parts of the building is the Clan Bar, which was a storage room closed for about 14 years before it was rediscovered and reopened two years ago. It keeps a Scottish theme, clan crests and all, and opens every day. The hotel's basement is a bit of a time capsule, too, with original Laura Ashley sheets, Second World War lamps and silver teapots tucked away. The lounge and bar are still being touched up, and there are plans to renovate the cellar bar, Spider's Web, down the line.

Behind the scenes, the hotel is run by RBH Hospitality Management on behalf of the Singapore-based Fragrance Group, which bought it in 2019. There are about 40 staff, and no one was made redundant during the closure. Andy Byles joined this month after eight years at Derriford's Future Inn, and weddings and events manager Melanie Williams has been at the Duke for 30 years. For a bit of Plymouth history, the building survived the war and is still seen as a defining figure in the city's maritime story. It's a short walk from the Barbican, the National Marine Aquarium and the Royal Citadel, with the train station less than a mile away, which makes it an easy base if you're coming in for a weekend.