Bolton: live entertainment hub with sport and activity opens

Unit VIP has been open for just a month at Stewart Street in Bolton giving people the chance to play snooker, PS5, darts, and watch live sports like football and boxing.

Personal rooms can be booked at the venue for people to enjoy with their friends or they can hang out in the main room with everyone else.

There is also a dessert bar on-site serving up bubble waffles, milkshakes and mocktails on the menu.

Mohammed Dawood originally came up with the idea with Juned Ali in the 2020 lockdown and spent the next three years designing and building everything themselves.

He said: “We noticed there was not a place in Bolton where we could just chill on weekends and we decided to make it happen.

“We ended up building it ourselves, sacrificing everything to do it as it was an empty shell when we got it.

“We did all the designing, the tiling, and all the interior inside, it was all us.”

The business has been running steadily since it opened.

Mohammed said: “The first month has been steady and it’s been okay.

“We have had groups of people come in and it’s a family-friendly place where anyone can hire a room or pay entry to the main room.

“It is something different that has not really been done in Bolton before and it’s steady because not many people know about it.”

Mohammed said that while the footfall in the area was not great, they were hoping to be discovered by word of mouth.

He said: “Sometimes people will not notice it because they do not walk past here.

“We are based on a car park and so we can be a little hidden but it’s early days and we know that since this is different, it can take some time.”

Mohammed and Juned want to appeal to businesses to book the rooms for parties and work events too.

He said: “We had a boxing event recently when Eubank fought, so a local boxing gym took a room and wanted their own private room.”