The Old Nick in Derbyshire: ex-police station converted into a five-bedroom family home with 'prison cell' bar

A bar in a cell and a prisoners' exercise yard converted into a courtyard garden are two of the unusual features of this former police station in Derbyshire.

The Old Nick in Belper has been turned into a family home, while retaining quirky features of its previous incarnation, including iron barred doors.

The grade II listed house was built in 1848 as Derbyshire's first police headquarters, just 19 years after the Met, Britain's first police force, was established by Sir Robert Peel.

The station, in the centre of Belper, is now a comfortable family home on the market for £500,000 - the price of a studio flat in Pimlico - and features five double bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The first room you come to after the former station reception area is the "snug" which is, appropriately enough, a cosy reception room complete with log burning stove.

Next door, where better place to rustle up some porridge than in the 14ft kitchen/breakfast room?

A former cell has been turned into an entertainment room, complete with bar and original bare stone walls, the study features the original prison door, while there is also a large dining room with sliding doors to the courtyard garden and a music room, also with courtyard access.

The 18ft square living room has a log burner and an exposed stone arch to the cell-turned-bar.

Even the store room has a history - it was the station's former gun storage room.

The five bedrooms, including master with en suite bathroom, and the other bathroom are all on the first floor.

The inmates' former exercise yard is now a beautiful stone walled courtyard garden with flagged terrace and planted borders and door to the rear garden, which has a lawn and a patio area.

The driveway has plenty of parking space, while there's also a double garage and a separate 26ft courtyard for storage.

The property also has a cottage-style one-bedroom annexe, with open-plan living room/kitchen, en suite bathroom and patio, which could be let as a holiday cottage.

The Old Nick is just over the road from the 100-year-old ornamental Belper River Gardens and the World Heritage Site of Belper North Mill, an historic former cotton mill housing a visitors' centre.

When you want to escape to the capital, Belper station is less than half a mile away and frequent trains to St Pancras take just two hours, including a change at Derby.

The Old Nick is for sale through Attenborough & Co for £500,000