Historic hotel rebuild gathers pace decade after 'devastating' fire

Ten years ago Max Sayers and Courtney Manning watched the Exeter skyline in flames from the roof of their flat at the bottom of Fore Street.

Now both are directors of the local firm rebuilding the Royal Clarence Hotel from the ashes of the catastrophic blaze that enveloped Cathedral Yard on October 28 2016.

“We were standing on the roof watching the smoke come up,” said Max. “So we wandered up to see what was happening and saw this devastating fire.

“It really tore a scar in the city. It was such a devastating day.”

Now, with a giant crane reaching into the sky from the middle of the site, the Royal Clarence is well on the way to becoming a prestigious new development in the hands of NooKo, the company which has Max and Courtney among its directors.

“It would never have crossed our minds that we might be standing here in 10 years time,” said Max. “That was so far from where we ever thought we’d be.

“When I first worked with Courtney we had a Renault Scénic with no seats in the back, and we were chopping up garage doors trying to get them in the back.

“Things have changed a little bit since then.”

NooKo took on the Royal Clarence in April 2025, and after preparatory work to make the site safe, work began in earnest in January 2026. Final planning approvals have just been granted for the restoration which will create 25 apartments above new commercial space on the ground floor.

Concrete is being poured in the coming days to create the floors for the next storey of the building, and the project will soon move ever higher inside the charred old walls.

Inside, a new staircase and light well will wrap around timbers still marked by the fire, with NooKo having decided not to try to hide what happened to the building in October 2016.

The whole front of the building is being kept. The top section that had to come down after the fire will be rebuilt, and the coat of arms that sat above it will be recreated by specialist craftsman Rod Hare, who was also on site to mark the anniversary.

The Royal Clarence name will be painted back across the front, exactly as it was.

The project is due to be finished by the end of 2027.

On site for a series of media interviews to mark the 10th anniversary of the fire, Max said: “Everything is on target. Since we got the building in April 2025 we’ve been working with Exeter City Council and Historic England trying to get everything tied up and ready to go.

“Now we’ve got full planning permission we’re going hell for leather!”

The city council, he said, had been instrumental in getting the project under way.

“They’ve been working tirelessly on this,” he went on. “I know from the outside it looks like we haven’t done anything in the last 12 months, but behind the scenes everybody is working unbelievably hard and the city council has been instrumental in making this building available to be redeveloped.”

He said it was the first time the anniversary of the fire had coincided with some tangible work going on at the site.

“You can really feel the energy when you’re here,” he added. “What has made the building so memorable is the memories that people of Exeter have of the place.

“It is going to be a really exciting moment when we can hand it back to the people of Exeter and they can have the Cathedral Green looking as wonderful as it used to.”

Nooko’s directors now have their own young families, and are keen to create something that will last for generations.

“We want to stand back and be proud of what we’ve created,” said Max. “We want to create something that can be handed over to the next generation, something that is as good as we possibly can.

“We want them to be able to look up and be proud of what has been done.”