A NEW 700-capacity theme pub will take the place of a city's only mainstream cinema.

Regent Inns yesterday won an appeal against licence refusal by North Durham justices following a two-week hearing at Durham Crown Court.

The London-based leisure company will develop the Australian theme Walkabout "bar, restaurant and entertainment-led venue", following a £1.8m conversion of Robin's Cinema, in North Road, Durham.

Walkabout will open six nights a week until 1am, although the company must comply with various conditions.

The cinema will close next month, with work starting within weeks for proposed opening by June.

The closure will bring to an end almost 70 years of movie tradition in Durham City. The theatre first opened on March 27, 1934, when it was known as the Regal.

Judge Beatrice Bolton, sitting with four magistrates, allowed the appeal despite opposition from police, local residents and the City of Durham Trust.

All fear an increase in late- night nuisance and disturbance in North Road, already blighted by drunken disorder on many weekend evenings.

Judge Bolton said there were insufficient late drinking venues to meet demand in Durham and believed Walkabout's presence will encourage an improvement in surrounding licensed premises.

Judge Bolton also accused some objectors of showing "a degree of snobbery" in assuming all late-night drinkers in North Road were "animals".

Chief Inspector Laz Szomoru, police operations manager for Durham, said: "Our resources are limited and the prospect of even more drinkers coming out onto the streets at one o'clock in the morning is not one we relish."

City trust chairman Roger Cornwell said members would monitor Regent's operation to ensure it complies with the conditions.