The roof is back on at the former Clifton Street School after the owner failed to win planning permission to convert it into flats and was ordered to return it to its original state.

The school was partially demolished when retrospective planning permission was denied.

And in July when developer Sukh Mander appealed against a maintenance order from the borough council a judge told him to restore the building.

Since then the roof has been reinstated, windows have been replaced to how they were before demolition started, internal and external hoardings that were blocking the original doors have been removed and damaged fascia, pipes and guttering have all been fixed and replaced.

Save Swindon’s Heritage founder Sally Hawson, who lobbied to save the school from demolition, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. We’ve campaigned for quite a long time and at one point I was giving up hope.

“The poor thing didn’t have a roof and it was just looking terrible so to actually see progress being made now, I’m thrilled.

“It was a joint effort to be honest, there’s lots of people in Save Swindon’s Heritage who very kindly took the time to write letters of objection and I understand that not only the planning officer, but also the courts, commented on how many objection letters they’d received so there was no confusion as to how much this building meant to people.

“I’m also really pleased that the council put so much effort in. It obviously cost money to take things to court and it did go to an appeal court which often doesn’t come back in your favour," she said. “I was really grateful to them for sticking to their guns and doing what they said they would do.”

When it comes to the future of the building, Sally believes that there will be plenty of people who would like to live at the school instead of flats.

She added: “I don’t think the owner’s going to lose out. I think a lot of people are going to want to live in a tastefully restored Victorian school. He has an opportunity now to make it somewhere nice, he might not get as many homes as he would have but it’s still an opportunity. He’s done a nice job with it so far.”

Built in the 1880s, the school shut in 1987 and became commercial offices.

Mr Mander was approached for comment but did not respond.