THE Randolph Hotel is hoping to reopen by Monday after structural engineers said the building was safe.

Management of the building was officially handed back to staff yesterday by Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, almost three days after a fire ripped through the grade II-listed building in Beaumont Street.

It was originally hoped that the hotel would be back up and running by Saturday, but that has been put back following discussions between hotel management and engineers.

A beef stroganoff is now thought to be the dish that was being flambé cooked when flames leapt into an extractor fan and spread throughout the building.

General manager Michael Grange said: “I would say 95 per cent of the hotel is absolutely fine.

“Today we will start bringing back our staff and they will start cleaning and tidying up.

“Specialist cleaners and companies that deal with smoke damage will be on site as well and it will be all systems go.

“I think we have got about 10 or 12 rooms we will not be able to use, so we will be able to take the majority of our guests.”

The hotel has a banqueting kitchen and a pastry kitchen – as well as the ground floor kitchen that was damaged – and so it plans to still offer a limited food service.

Mr Grange said: “We will be doing a bed and breakfast service and we hope to do our afternoon teas and we will be doing room service for our in-house guests.”

He also confirmed some of the most iconic parts of the building escaped unscathed.

Mr Grange said: “In our ballroom we have these beautiful chandeliers, which are reproductions of the ones which were on the Titanic.

“They have not been touched at all.

“And the stairway is an iconic part of the hotel and it is fine.”

But he said the relaunch of its restaurant and bistro, which was originally planned for the middle of May, would be delayed. Beaumont Street was able to reopen westbound yesterday after engineers decided the gable end of the damaged roof was safe.

But the road will remain closed eastbound to allow the clean-up operation to continue.

Roads authority Oxfordshire County Council was unable to say how long this would take.