AFTER spending £500,000 anyone would need to relax.

That is how much this new Conservatory Bar at the Royal York Hotel will cost by the time it is finished.

Here is an artist's impression which shows exactly how relaxing the Conservatory Bar will be.

Work begins in January and it is scheduled to open at the end of May.

The air-conditioned area will be open from 8am to 11pm for non residents too, while residents will enjoy the benefits of a late drinking licence. Food will be served there for up to 100 people.

Now back in the fold of the Principal Hotel Group after briefly being a Le Meridien hotel, the conservatory is part of a new £5.7 million refurbishment programme which has already seen the revamping of all 167 bedrooms, the Victorian lounge with spiral staircase, corridors and meeting rooms.

Access to the new bar will be either through Tea Room Square alongside York railway station or through the hotel.

When the conservatory opens, the existing lounge bar will vanish. It means that the reception can be moved into the lobby area.

Julia Bodmer, the hotel's director of sales, said "The reception has always been in the corridor leading from the railway station. That harks back to Victorian days when most guests arrived by train and as they entered the hotel, the reception was the first place they saw.

"Obviously a lot of guests still arrive by train, but many arrive by car and for them the reception area is not very obvious. This changes everything."

The fresh face of the main hotel brings it into line with its modern £2.5 million events centre which opened in September 2000.

Updated: 09:36 Tuesday, November 16, 2004