BEFORE they started dismantling Victoria House last week, the White Swan Hotel had a rival for the title of York's most prominent eyesore. Now it is out there on its own.

The building is dilapidated, dirty and dismal. Few can recall what it was like before its decline.

What makes the White Swan's condition all the more shaming is its conspicuousness. It stands on one of York's main city centre junctions, where Piccadilly, Coppergate, Pavement and Parliament Street join.

Anyone exploring the city's shopping centre will go past it. Many visitors arriving by bus or taxi see it before they see the Minster. Road-users are caught in its shadow as they wait for the lights to change.

No wonder the White Swan, now more an ugly duckling, has regularly topped polls to find York's biggest blemish. It certainly received plenty of nominations when Evening Press columnist Dick Turpin ran his own unscientific survey last year.

City of York Council officials have not been blind to the eyesore. They want to improve this corner as much as the rest of us. But this has proved more difficult than anyone expected.

Simply tracing the White Swan's owners was tough. To find out who they were took detective work that would have impressed Inspector Morse.

Now the council is taking the matter further. It is in talks with the owners, a London-based property firm, about the future of the site. Council officials are pressing for the building to be converted to help to meet the pressing need for affordable, city centre housing.

And officers say they are prepared to issue a compulsory purchase order if these negotiations break down.

The council is right to get tough. Owners of the White Swan have had plenty of time to restore the building, or to dispose of it. Now York has had enough of this blot on the landscape.

Updated: 10:38 Thursday, May 31, 2001