A FORMER police station should prove a magnet for real ale enthusiasts during the bank holiday weekend.

Cathedral's bar and restaurant complex, transformed from Durham's disused Victorian police office, is staging its first beer festival, offering a mix of locally-produced ales plus oddly-named brews from further afield.

The first of many pints was pulled yesterday, marking the start of four days of consumption by the real ale fraternity in the North-East.

Bar manager Brent Smithson said Cathedral's usually has three real ales available to customers, but an array of 20 will be on offer during the weekend.

"There will be the three pumps at the bar, one supporting local micro-breweries, one from the Interbrew range which will be familiar to local real ale drinkers, and another for the more adventurous.

"There will also be a gravity bar with at least 12 available at any one time, and when one runs out we can replace it with stocks of other beers.

"We have some local favourites like Hill Island and Durham Brewery beers, but we've also gone for some which have probably never been sampled in these parts."

Among the longer travelled beers are Piston Brew, from the Isle of Man, Abbeydale Black Mace, from Devon, Archer's Brewery's Flying Scotsman range, from Swindon, plus specials from the Hart Brewery in Blackpool, including Wicked Wanda, Horney Helga and Jade.

The festival runs over the weekend to last orders on Monday, with food available from 11am to 9.30pm.

Cathedral's is in Court Lane, near the Durham Crown Court complex.