WORK is almost finished on the former Gypsy's Tent pub in Bolton town centre, which is to be converted into five flats.

Renovations are expected to be completed in the next couple of months.

The Gypsy's Tent, on the corner of Spa Road and Marsden Road, has been empty since it closed in 2007 and left derelict.

Bolton-based developers SRA bought the building and a spokesman said: "It should be done in the next couple of months."

The flats are likely to be rented out by the developers and will be put on the market through Northwood lettings and estate agents.

In August last year a silver Toyota Corolla crashed into the scaffolding and main entrance to the property, setting the work back.

The SRA spokesman said: "A car went into the main entrance and we couldn't have access until the structural engineers had checked it out.

"It set us back a couple of months."

The crash knocked brick and stone work out of the building's doorway and fire crew who responded needed to use specialist equipment to shore up the property.

A spokesman for SRA, which owns a number of other properties in Bolton, said: "It was doing nothing when it came on to the market and we thought we would give it a change and make it decent."

In September, 2016 SRA was refused planning permission to convert the pub into seven flats on grounds that the development would be too cramped and lead to poor living conditions.

In December that year, fresh plans were submitted by SRA asking permission for five flats — three apartments and two bedsits — spread across the building's three floors.

The Gypsy’s Tent — or Gipsy’s Tent as it was spelled up until the 1990s — was built in the 19th century and the developers were keen in their planning statements to retain its look.

The planning statement says: "The external elevations will not be changed to look different, but modernised as to keep and revive this prominent 19th century building and not get rid of its history and look."

Although the pub’s address is listed as Deansgate, it was cut off from the rest of the street when Marsden Road bridge was built in 1877.

The second set of plans were approved by Bolton Council in February, 2017.