A rundown eyesore is to be reborn as a home to several businesses.

The old county court on High Street, Wigton, will become the town's jewel in the crown when it opens next year as a steakhouse and lounge called The Athanaeum.

It will also be home to a beauticians and a cafe.

The work has been carried out by engineer Paul Evans.

The project has been a labour of love for the 50-year-old, who has worked on it in his spare time over the past three years.

“This is my hobby,” said Paul, who lives near Wigton but who travels the country and abroad for his canning machinery company.

“We looked at a few places as investments, but this was such a big building. We came in and saw the beams and the lions’ heads and I could see the potential.

“I just didn’t know the amount of work it would take!”

Janice added: “I was daunted when I first came in.

“There were times when I brought a hot flask down for him at night because Paul was working in the freezing cold and he has come home filthy with dirt.”

The building was bought from the North Allerdale Development Trust in August 2013.

Since then, ugly and tired cladding has been chipped off to reveal handsome sandstone, while inside, windows and doors have been replaced, beams have been blasted to reveal intricate carving, lions’ heads are mounted into the walls and a wooden gallery has been revived.

Paul and wife Janice took it on as an investment for a pension fund.

“It was something we could do for ourselves, rather than working for someone else,” says Janice, a former department manager at Hooper’s in Carlisle.

She will run the cafe – called Barristers – and her daughter Sam Knight, will run the beauty salon. It is hoped both businesses will be up and running before Christmas.

The restaurant is expected to open some time next year.

Paul has even paid for historian Helen Tranter to produce a 40-page report on the history of the building.

Originally on the site of the Black Lion pub, builder and carpenter John Walker bought the pub and transformed it into what he called The Athanaeum in 1852.

It was a place of entertainment and education with a newsroom and a library.

When he died in 1958, it was taken over by the government and turned into a County Court.

In the Sixties it became the Wigton community Hall and in the Seventies the front of it was taken over by the TSB bank which still operates there.

Paul is hoping his hard work to revive a colourful part of the town’s past will help boost its appeal to visitors and make Wigton more of a food and drink destination.