'The Mansion House will be the major attraction in York it deserves to be'

Sarah White, dusting a portrait, at York's Mansion House, ahead of its reopening in December

The Queen ate upstairs in 2012 and Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert stayed over while drumming up support for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Now six weeks away from its reopening, the table is being set at York’s Mansion House to bring one of its fabled feasts from yesteryear back to life.

The Georgian home of the Lord Mayors of York during their term in office, has been closed for over two years for the biggest restoration project in its history.

The Heritage Lottery-funded project has seen sagging walls underpinned, a collapsing ceiling in the State Room secured and a modern building management system installed.

It will reopen to the public five days a week, and its fabulous gold and silver collection - including its iconic silver chamber pot - brought out of the vaults and put on display.

People will be able to go into the vaulted kitchens downstairs which have had the 1970s Formica ripped off the 18th century tables and a huge hearth reopened to cook on, to learn how food was prepared three centuries ago.

Thanks to the latest technology, they will be able to crack a virtual egg, and see virtual freshly-plucked woodcock feathers flying all over the table, before going upstairs to see the finished article dished up as part of a vast banquet for 156 guests to celebrate Mayor Making on February 3 1785.

Georgins Pike, House Steward, in the State Room of York's Mansion House

The actual event saw snow cleared away from the front of the house, and a vast quantity of meat consumed.

“The whole banquet is just meat apart from asparagus and that’s just showing off because it was quite hard to get hold of,” said curator Richard Pollitt.

The Mansion House is still a living building - the Lord Mayor has private apartments upstairs and it is used for weddings and locations for films.

But in the past the main door onto St Helen’s Square has often been shut.

The project has seen inside glass doors installed, allowing the main door to stay open Wednesday to Sunday, a welcoming gesture to people to come and have a look.

Former Sheriff, Coun Keith Orrell said: “Residents and visitors to the city will have seen many other historic buildings around the country but I think the Mansion House is unique.

“Thanks to the HLF and the local organisations that have helped fund the project the Mansion House will now be the major attraction in York that it deserves to be.”