A DERELICT building which has stood empty for more than a decade has been transformed into a state-of-the-art bingo hall.

The former Kwik Save building on Holker Street will now be home to Opera Bingo and is due to open tomorrow.

The Mail was given a sneak peek inside the building, which has been transformed into a 500-seat bingo hall over the last year.

The once dilapidated former supermarket was bought by the Workington-based GCL Leisure, which owns three other bingo halls in the county.

Daryl Davidson, head of operations at the company, said: “We came to see the building around two years ago and knew it would be a lot of work.

“But we thought it would be a perfect place to open up a site.

“It’s in the town centre and we were already having a lot of people from Barrow travel to our other sites.”

The other bingo hall in Barrow is Apollo Bingo in Hollywood Park.

Nick Smith, managing director of GCL, said: “What makes us different to other bingo halls is that we are a really community-focused space.It’s somewhere people can go and be social.”

Bosses say the hall has been decorated with an ‘industrial feel’, with a number of large prints of old photographs of the town placed on the walls across the site, including in the toilets.

Two games a day will be put on at the bingo hall every day. Food and drink will also be served.

There is also a separate lounge that can be booked for groups.

The hall has so far held test games ahead of its opening with members who have already signed up as well residents of the Station View retirement housing complex opposite the building.

The bingo hall opens its doors at 12pm tomorrow.

Plans to transform the former Kwik Save building were lodged with the council in October last year.

The hall has been a praised as a sign of Barrow’s regeneration at the ‘gateway’ to the town alongside Emlyn Hughes House, now home to Furness Building Society.