Thirty years after a devastating fire in the music room at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, restoration work is almost complete.

The arson attack on November 2, 1975, left the room ravaged and it remained closed to the public for 11 years while the damage was painstakingly repaired and a weak roof strengthened.

Then, just as the room was nearing completion, it was hit by another disaster - the great gale of 1987 which sent a ball of stone from a minaret crashing through the newly-restored cove and into the floor.

Once again the conservator team set to work and although most of the job was completed by 1992, work to perfect the intricate detail in the room has continued.

Now some of the damaged items from the fire and pieces in various stages of restoration will feature in a new exhibition.

Norman Stevens, gilding conservator at the Pavilion, has been engaged in a ten-year labour of love with the music room.

He said: "George IV loved detail and it is that detail that makes the room. When I began working on the room after the fire, nearly every ornament in there had some damage.

"We have been working in immense detail and the sheer size and number of items takes time."

The music room was created when the Prince Regent had his seaside residence transformed into a palace.

Architect John Nash claimed he had achieved acoustic perfection, although former Pavilion director Jessica Rutherford says in her book A Prince's Passion, available at the Pavilion, there were many who doubted him.

But few were unimpressed with the ornate splendour of the room, which included a gilded ceiling, carved dragons and serpents and rich wall canvases.

The decorations were provided by Frederick Crace, who made it vie in magnificence with the Banqueting Room a few yards away.

Queen Victoria did not like the Pavilion much, preferring the seclusion of Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight, and she sold the palace when it passed into her ownership.

It was only by a narrow majority that the town agreed to buy it in 1850.

By the time the sale took place, the music room had been stripped of all its main decoration - prompting the start of a major refurbishment which continued throughout the Victorian era.

The Brighton Herald reported of the Music Room's restoration in 1898 that "before long it will become a room of which the town will be proud".

More damage was caused to the Pavilion during the First World War when it was used as a hospital for injured soldiers but restoration was again carried out in the Twenties and Thirties, this time with the royal approval of Queen Mary.

In 1975, a man jilted by his girlfriend set the Music Room on fire, causing enormous damage. The room had been insured for £250,000 and for more than a decade, conservationists worked hard to restore the room to its original beauty.

Just when the job had been completed - and within budget - disaster struck again in the October 1987 storm.

Once again, conservationists were called in. It took seven people seven months to re-gild the 26,000 cockle shells of the dome.

The chandeliers and coving were restored and replica curtains and carpets based on original fragments and archive documents were fitted. The ornaments on the room's canopy are carved from lime, coated in a chalky white ground mixed with glue, brushed with bole pigment and finished with 23-carat gold leaf which is thinner than a hair.

Most of the newly-carved and gilded decorations have been replaced on the canopy and Norman advises visitors to look up to see the effect.

The exhibition, in cases in the music room, runs through November until the end of the year.

Brighton and Hove residents are entitled to discounted admission to the Pavilion until the end of February 2006 if they bring with them proof of residency.