The editor says...

4:03pm Wednesday 18th April 2007

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THE Guardian was thrilled by an invitation to become media partner in the contest to find a tenant for the Great Hall at the old Leyton Town Hall.

When the listed building was put on the market by the council, the news was greeted with gloom and, in some quarters, anger.

The general feeling was that, like so many magnificent public buildings, it would become another block of flats or another hotel with maybe a pub or a chain restaurant on the ground floor.

We shared many of these concerns, so it came as a pleasant surprise to find out what was actually happening.

For a start, community use and public access came top of the wish list of the local developers, Michael Polledri of Lee Valley Estates and Guy Davis of Hiltongrove Business Space, along with a strong desire to restore the building to its former glory.

Working with advice from the council's conservation expert, Guy Osborne, they have spent huge sums of money stripping away the acres of chipboard and the gloomy municipal paint which marked it when it was in office use, and revealed the magnificent detail behind and underneath.

Much of the building is being turned into a Legacy Business Centre, with 28 office suites expects to attract people like solicitors, accountants and architects.

A coffee shop and a restaurant are in the plans.

And now the fabulous Great Hall is to come back into public use for the first time in many years through a competition to find the most promising tenant.

Mr Davis and Mr Polledri say they want to contribute to the regeneration of the area.

This is certainly a good start.