Work formally begins this week on the eagerly-awaited transformation of Liphook’s former Anchor Garage into The Living Room Cinema, which is expected to open later this year.

Plans which have been given the go-ahead by East Hampshire District Council include a new restaurant building and three residential units, two town houses and an apartment.

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’.

The cinema aspires to emulate a "home-from-home" feeling in the heart of the community, aiming to show ’quality films in intimate surroundings, offering hand-picked films in an auditorium with a touch of countryside elegance and luxury’.

The programme, it says, will present the best in quality mainstream films and live content such as opera and ballet, with family films every weekend and classics on the big screen.

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.

Several membership options will be available, including a limited number of Founder memberships.

Founder Claire Beswick, a Liphook local, is a veteran of the cinema exhibition industry. Named one of the Top 50 Women in Global Cinema, her 15-year career has spanned several cinema chains including Odeon Cinemas Group and Curzon Cinemas.

Backed by senior industry executives, she says she has assembled the best team in the business to deliver her vision.

"I’m delighted to be bringing cinema to my home town," she said. "I started The Living Room Cinema with one aim - to provide smaller provincial locations with a quality cinema offer.

"Many local residents may have experienced a boutique cinema experience in London or other cities. Our smaller operation, pairing a single auditorium with a lounge-like foyer serving coffee and cocktails, combines all the essential ingredients for a super night out.

"Our aim is to bring communities together, breathe life back into the High Street and re-establish cinema at its heart".

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.