A Sussex entrepreneur plans to resurrect a piece of local history when he opens a new restaurant.

Paul Craig has bought the building which previously housed Wheelers, a family run fish restaurant which served up the catch of the day in Brighton for 35 years.

He took over ownership of the building in The Lanes last November when the Wheeler family, whose business was an institution in Brighton and Hove, retired.

In two weeks, it will re-open as Blu, a modern Conran-style pizza and pasta restaurant.

Although most of the interior of the Wheelers building has been gutted to make way for the 21st Century decor, one feature has been preserved.

When he bought the restaurant, Mr Craig discovered Wheelers had spent £15,000 installing a marble bar where customers could sit and have fresh oysters and drinks.

Mr Craig said he couldn't bear to part with the beautiful eight foot slab of marble, which is almost three inches thick.

The marble has been reshaped and made into two bars, for the ground and first floors.

Mr Craig, 30, said: "I wanted the dining rooms to have a funky, trendy and minimalist feel. But I knew I had to preserve the marble bar.

"Blu will be for people who want good food in an airy, clean environment and a prime location. It is designed to have a Conran feel at affordable prices."

This will be the second Blu restaurant opened by Mr Craig. He opened the first in his home town of Worthing two years ago.

And he hopes to expand his empire further next year. He has bought a building at Brighton Marina and hopes to open it as a third Blu in February.

The old Wheelers restaurant was originally a combination of two early Victorian buildings used as a jewellers and antique shop before it was made into one restaurant via a communal archway.

The new look restaurant, designed by Brighton architect Miles Broe, will be able to seat double the number of diners.

Seating space has been expanded to 129 from 64, and the kitsch decor of Wheelers has been banished along with the fish menu.

It will have a steel and wood interior and a stainless steel staircase, a combination of spiral and straight flights, connecting the floors in the middle of the restaurant.

Mr Broe, whose firm of architects designed Havana Restaurant in Duke Street and worked on the recent conversion of the Coronation Cinema in North Laine into flats, said: "The restaurant will look quite different to how it looked when it was Wheelers.

"The structure of the building has been opened out substantially to create more seating. We were asked to provide a contemporary interior with the extensive use of polished stainless steel and oak.

"And more than 200 tonnes of ground and structural material have been removed to create superb new washrooms in the basement.

"It is very rewarding to be able to keep older traditional features when designing a modern building like this.

"It is necessary to do this in The Lanes otherwise the intrinsic character of the area would be lost."

Blu will open in Market Street, The Lanes, on September 18.