Babylon nightclub in Greenock - final look inside

The derelict venue - which sits on the corner of Argyle Street and West Stewart Street - has lain empty for 16 years and steadily deteriorated inside and out.

The building was snapped up by the council last year and has been earmarked for flats once demolition work concludes.

Planning permission to bulldoze the property was formally granted last month and Inverclyde Council is now finalising the details of the work to tear it down.

After purchasing the ruined venue last April, the council approved the spending of £400,000 to do the demolition.

The club was formerly owned by Greenock-based WBI Group, which also owns Word Up on Dalrymple Street.

The building's crumbling exterior has been seen as an eyesore by many locals for many years.

Vegetation growing from it famously earned it the nickname 'the hanging gardens of Babylon'.

Now former clubbers have been given a last look inside the venue which once hosted hundreds of people on weekend nights out.

The photos, which were published online, show the vast scale of the old club, with its dancefloors, stage and several bars.

Little is left of its iconic Egyptian-themed decor but old flyers and dusty boxes full of bottles of long-ago out-of-date beers remain.

More than a decade of rot has caused large sections of the property's upper floors to become unstable and collapse.

Its lighting rigs are still in place but parts of them have come crashing down.

In addition to incurring significant financial cost, the demolition work will cause significant disruption to Greenock town centre.

The whole of Argyle Street will need to be closed to allow a 12m high section of wall to be knocked down, while sections of West Stewart Street are also expected to close during the job.

Work to tear down the dilapidated venue is expected to start by February.