AN architect has revealed how she fell in love with an entrepreneur’s dream to convert a Liphook garage into a cinema.

Kate Grose believes The Living Room Cinema will be “fantastic” and could become the heart of the village when it opens.

The 60-seater cinema is the centrepiece of a ‘vibrant mixed-use development’ recently approved by East Hampshire District Council.

A restaurant, new frontage building and pair of townhouses are also part of the approved scheme to redevelop the Anchor Garage site.

Part of the complex, which has been vacant since October 2015, will be demolished to make way for the ‘hub’.

The plans were the brainchild of Liphook resident Claire Beswick, a veteran of the film industry who was recently named one of the Top 50 Women in Global Cinema.

She secured the backing of senior industry executives to deliver her vision.

The unit was being pitched for retail or restaurant use before Claire won over Tiger Hill Ltd with her plan to open a cinema in her hometown.

“Claire has definitely been the driving force and we bought into this,” said Kate, an architect at the Midhurst firm. “She has a got a very good background in cinema but it’s the first time she’s wanted to open one on her own. I think it will be fantastic.

“We originally thought that unit would be a restaurant or retail and we had a lot of interest from businesses for that sort of thing.

“But Liphook lacks a bit of a heart at the moment so I think the cinema will give it that heart and some focus.

“I know there are film showings in the Millennium Centre and that’s great but I don’t think this will compete against it.

“There will be modern stage, art house films, ballet, things like that, perhaps some live streaming.”

The former car showroom has been standing empty since October 2015, following the sudden closure after long-time owner Barry Haines had sold the business 18 months earlier.

The Living Room Cinema will be the first full-time purpose-built cinema in the Liphook area since the closure of The Rex in Haslemere in 1986. It promises ‘quality films in a casually luxurious social space, coffee and cocktails’.

Highlights will include Q&A sessions with film makers, family events, film-making workshops, and parent and baby screenings as well as a monthly film quiz.

EHDC’s planning officers felt the development represented a “positive, sustainable and most effective use” of the former garage site and would allow for a series of employment opportunities.

The officers’ report stated the development would be beneficial to the local economy and community, adding a degree of diversity and vitality to the village centre.

The two detached, three-bedroom town houses are inspired by historic coaching house models, arranged around small courtyard gardens, with their own parking spaces.

Work on transforming the vacant unit into a hub that offers ‘all the essential ingredients for a super night out’ is likely to start before the end of March.

The applicants are waiting for a condition for planning permission to be cleared, and then the diggers can move in. If everything goes smoothly then the first film showing at The Living Room Cinema could take place before Christmas.

“We can’t wait to get started,” Kate said.