A former tea-room which has sat empty on Billericay High Street for nine months has been totally refurbished ahead of its transformation into a tapas cafe.

Flamingo Tea Room, in High Street, is taking over the site of the former Willow Tree Tea Rooms which closed in November last year and has sat empty since.

The new Flamingo will open next weekend, offering a bigger menu, longer opening times into the evening and tapas.

Flamingo, which is currently in a smaller and “restrictive” building across the road from Willow Tree, has put signs up for the new site.

It will keep its current location open as a cakerie, to continue offering coffee and cake as well as potentially being available for private hire.

Co-owner, Emma Bland, 52, who runs Flamingo with husband Ala Mahsoodh, has described the new location as “a few notches up.”

She said: “It is something different, we really wanted to do this sort of thing before and we were opening in the evenings, but we are so limited in the old shop, it was just too much.

“Now we have more space, in the shop and the kitchen, we can bring in an evening menu, we are taking it a few notches up.

“We are trying to keep it cosy, with all the soft furnishings like a sofa and comfortable seating, we are trying to keep that cosiness as it is a big part of what we liked in our current location, it was a good vibe, and we want that over there.”

A cocktail menu will be on offer at the new location, to “complement the food” and a separate breakfast and lunch menu will be available all day, with “more choices.”

Emma added: “There will be platters and seafood platters, Mediterranean platters, prosecco and we are just trying to do what we wanted and couldn’t do, what we used to try.

“A lot of time, money and effort has gone into doing this and hopefully it will be really good for the High Street and the town.”

The new Flamingo will be open from next weekend.