Civic watchdogs have given their backing to proposals which would see a remarkable Norwich clock loaned to London's Science Museum.
The Norwich Society has supported Norwich City Council's plan to lend the Gurney Clock to the South Kensington museum for 10 years.
But the organisation, which campaigns to protect the city's heritage, hopes the clock will eventually find a home back in the city - if and when ambitious plans to revamp City Hall are completed.
The clock, considered among the most accurate mechanical clocks in the world, used to stand in Chapelfield Gardens and then at Castle Mall.
It was commissioned for the city in 1977, to celebrate 200 years of the well-known Gurney's Bank, now Barclays, which had its home on Bank Plain until 2003.
However, the clock was removed from the shopping centre in 2015 and has been in storage ever since.
Efforts were made to find a new location where it could be displayed in Norwich, but plans to put it in the former Barclays bank in Bank Plain came to nothing.
And, on Wednesday next week (September 9) the Green-led Norwich City Council's cabinet, is likely to agree to lend the timepiece to the Clockmakers' Museum, within the Science Museum.
It would be lent to the renowned institution for 10 years, with council officers saying the clock would be treated to specialist restoration, recommissioning and ongoing maintenance, at no cost to City Hall.
Officers, in the report which will go before councillors, acknowledged there "may be some public opposition to losing a historical and heritage asset for the period of the loan".
But the Norwich Society, which campaigned for the Gurney Clock to be moved to the Castle Mall after it was vandalised in Chapelfield Gardens, is backing the switch.
A spokeswoman said: "Ten years may initially seem like a long time for a loan, but as the Clockmakers' Museum are intending to restore it and take responsibility for its care and interpretation during this time, it is a reasonable request.
"The clock hasn't been accessible to the public for over 10 years and this initiative will place it on public display in a national museum which is free to visit.
"Our hope, however, would be that the reimagining work at City Hall includes the display and interpretation of the clock in its plans."
Although the precision clock mechanism element of the £250,000 device would temporarily move to London, the automaton aspect – a decorative, sculptural display featuring a lion and castle – will remain in Norwich in protective storage.
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