work is due to start next month on a £1 million renovation of Bolton's Pack Horse Hotel.

Owner Dr Subhash Jajoo is ripping out the dated bar area, kitchens and six ground-floor bedrooms at the Nelson Square hotel to create a luxury bar and dining area capable of seating up to 300 people.

The work, which is expected to be completed by the end of November, will see the creation of a contemporary JJ Bar and Grill, with an entrance off Nelson Square.

At the moment, customers using the bar have to go through the hotel entrance to reach it. But manager Eric Grindrod believes the new-look bar with street access will have partygoers flocking in.

"We will be taking it up a notch or two" said Mr Grindrod, who managed the Georgian House Hotel at Blackrod in the 1980s.

"At the moment, everyone is travelling to Manchester because they can't get what they want in Bolton.

"This will be a big city type, upmarket venue."

Dr Jajoo, who bought the Pack Horse building in April last year, is continuing to grow his hotel empire. As well as the Pack Horse, he owns two hotels in Manchester and is about to complete the purchase of a fourth in Chester.

Craftsmen in India are busy hand carving entrance doors for the new Pack Horse bar, as well as 60 chairs to be placed in a new fine dining restaurant being created in the first floor Oak Room, which is currently used as a function room.

Chefs are planning a stylish cosmopolitan-style menu to tempt diners at in the grill and 52-year-old Mr Grindrod is determined the cash being poured into refurbishing the hotel will help restore it to its former glory.

"This is not going to be a teenage venue. There will be an emphasis on class," he said.

"At one time, the Pack Horse was the hotel in Bolton and this will help put it back on the map."

Mr Grindrod hopes the new look will impress hotel listing experts and give it four-star status, instead of the previous three-star listing.