It was a £15m project to transform a big blue corporate pyramid into an extravagant restaurant and banqueting hall that many may have doubted would ever become a reality.

When Royal Nawaab bosses first announced they had bought the Stockport Pyramid, situated within the M60, owner Mahboob Hussain said there were people who thought they were joking.

Built in the late 1980s as part of a 'Valley of the Kings' project, which had aimed to see five pyramids erected along the River Mersey, plans were squashed before developers went bankrupt in 1992. As the only one ever built as part of the plans, it became home to the Co-operative Bank for 26 years.

But when they announced plans to up sticks to the city centre, the pyramid was left collecting dust and filled with hundreds of outdated computers. Then, last November, the award-winning restaurant chain received the green light to transform the pyramid into a huge dining and events space with room for 1,500 diners.

And, despite the naysayers, it has now been a running success in the couple of weeks it has been open as part of a ‘soft launch’ phase - attracting close to 10,000 diners to its ground-floor restaurant boasting hundreds of dishes in a buffet-style setting.

"I always used to pass the Stockport Pyramid on my way to Levenshulme," Mr Mahboob told the Manchester Evening News. "I always thought of it as such an iconic building but I never thought that, one day, I would be in here and actually be running a restaurant here.