A DISUSED former bowls pavilion is to get a new lease of life as a community cafe hub, and is set to open next week.

The Friends of Eastwoods Park group, formed last year, was granted the lease for the bowls pavilion at Eastwoods Park in West Wylam, which had stood empty for almost 20 years.

Since February, they have been been refurbishing the building into a space for a community cafe and hub, which will be officially opened on Tuesday.

Friends of Eastwoods Park trustee, Russ Greig, said: “We’ve decided to call the building the Miners Lamp Community Cafe and Hub, specifically as the park was originally a miners’ welfare park for miners working at the nearby West Wylam Colliery, but more importantly, as we’ll be displaying photos and information about the industrial heritage of West Wylam and the people that lived there.”

The hub will also work with local initiatives including Fareshare and Asda – to take donated food from Asda which would otherwise have gone to landfill to be used in the community cafe – and West Northumberland Foodbank to set up a satellite food bank in the hub.

An opening event will be held at 1pm on Tuesday, before the hub’s first events – meditation and mindfulness classes – will be held.