A BARROW music venue has been given a new lease of life, reopening as a hotel after an £80,000 redevelopment of its bedrooms.

The Derby, in Dalton Road, Barrow, has been operating as a concert venue since the end of last year, and work has been ongoing since then to bring its top floor back into use.

The major refurbishment has seen nine rooms decorated and furnished, as well as communal kitchen and lounge areas created.

Five UK Ltd, the team of business owners behind venues such as The Nines and The Knights of St Columba, had earmarked the property - which had been vacant for more than six months - to become their main venue for local bands, but the fact that it had been a hotel in previous incarnations also added extra appeal.

General manager Gaz Wood said: "

It was always going to be phase two of the project - when we looked at the building, it was obvious it needed to be a hotel, but we thought we'd get the bar up and running at first.

"We've now got to the point where all the rooms on the top floor are where we want them to be, and we're already getting plenty of bookings."

While structurally the layout of the building hasn't changed much, each room had been left in a run down state.

The nine rooms are a mixture of singles, doubles, and twins, and the kitchen and lounge are fully equipped for guests to use at their leisure.

Already the hotel has proved popular with workers from away, providing strong competition for a number of other projects taking place around the town.

Mr Wood added: "The shell was there, so it was just a case of bringing it up to modern standards. We wanted to make the rooms nice and comfortable, and a big thing is that it has a great location in the centre of town.

"The rooms are set up so that they are ideal for a long stay, for contractors staying in town, as much as they are suitable for just a single night. There are so many contractors in town that even with other hotels opening nearby, that we should always be busy, and we've got people coming to stay for the weekends.

"We've had bands on at The Nines asking if there's anywhere for their guests to stay, or sometimes the bands themselves want putting up for the night."

The Derby has already re-established its reputation as one of the town's premier nightspots, and the second phase already looks set to be a success. Next on the agenda is to work on the middle floor, which should eventually see the number of rooms rise to 16 in total, before work starts on opening another bar and lounge area on the ground floor, currently used for storage.

"We're really, really happy with how it's gone," said Mr Wood.

"It is always hard to open bars, so it was a bit of a gamble, but I think it's what Barrow needed and people have responded.

"We have tried to put our own spin on it and establish our own reputation, and people know what we're about from The Nines, but we don't take anything for granted."