Carlisle's newest arts venue will reopen in the autumn after being devastated by floods.

The Old Fire Station cost £1 million to create and it was designed to fill a gap in the entertainments market for smaller, more intimate arts gigs.

It opened with great fanfare last May but seven months later was deluged by 6ft of water during Storm Desmond.

The Carlisle City Council-owned venue, on Warwick Street, Rickergate, is set to be reopened but it needs repairs worth more than £500,000.

Stephen Dunn, the council’s arts officer, has cancelled 40 gigs so far – although two have been relocated to Harraby Community Centre: comedians Romesh Ranganathan, who will perform on Sunday, May 20, and Chris Ramsey, who performed in March.

No new bookings are currently being taken for this year and by the autumn Mr Dunn estimated the Old Fire Station will have missed out on about 60 gigs.

However, he remains optimistic about the venue’s future and already has acts booked for 2017.

He said: “We’ve actually had more enquiries since we were flooded out.

“The good thing for us is it showed there was a need. People liked it and people already missed it.”

The venue has now been stripped back to its brick shell and dried out.

Carlisle City Council and its insurers are expected to finish negotiations soon, agreeing a cost of about £430,000 for refurbishment and £100,000 for contents.

A building contractor is ready to start work on the former fire station as soon as negotiations are finalised.

A few minor changes are already planned to enhance the venue, including a permanent box office, better PA system and bigger bar, but the cafe and main auditorium will largely remain the same.

Gavin Capstick, contract and community services manager for the city council, said: “We don’t have a fixed date for it reopening, but we do want it reopening for the autumn season.” He hopes autumn can see the rescheduling of some of the events which had to be canceled.

The first floor of the Old Fire Station was untouched by the floods, but only one feature from the ground floor survived: an illuminated art deco stained glass window featuring the sun behind Carlisle Castle, inherited from the former Lonsdale Cinema in Warwick Road.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service closed the building in 2012, seven years after it flooded in 2005. The city council invested £1m in the building to turn it into an arts venue with a cafe-bar and auditorium for live music, comedy, theatre and exhibition.

Mr Dunn hopes that the reopened Old Fire Station will host as eclectic a mix of gigs and events as it boasted before. The venue had already put on artists’ exhibitions, comedians, authors, poetry readings and even a giant Scalextric layout.

In fact the only request Mr Dunn has ever turned down, he revealed, was from a dog grooming group.