A mortuary might not be everybody's idea of the perfect venue for a lunch date, but Plymouth's newest eatery can at least claim to be the coolest cafe in the city.

The Column Cafe has been set up inside the historic and recently refurbished Devonport Guildhall, one of the most glorious buildings in the area. Occupying a room long-ago used as a morgue, its menu offers wholesome soups, on-toast staples and healthy salads, all made with locally-sourced ingredients. And as well as being an intriguing place to "do lunch", those in charge of running the Guildhall hope the new, no-nonsense restaurant will encourage more local people to reclaim the Georgian gem as their own.

Named after the adjacent 90ft tower, the Column Cafe is only one of a host of initiatives aimed at bringing this treasured Devonport landmark back to life.

The grand old lady, which has survived wartime bombs and peacetime bulldozers, has been the subject of a £1.75 million refurbishment programme. And the results are truly spectacular. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership and carried out by GHK Architects, the plush mayor's parlour, vast main hall, gallery space, offices and chic cafe have to be seen to really appreciate the building's potential.

Temporarily marooned in a sea of construction sites, the Guildhall is run by operations manager Mia Gilson, a Californian who has fallen hopelessly in love with what has long been regarded as the "unfashionable" end of town.

On a tour of the building's public rooms, offices and former police cells, Mia, who is employed by the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO), is unable to suppress her enthusiasm.

"I absolutely love this place, it's fabulous, and I am very proud to be a part of its future," she said. "I have long been passionate about history and to me this is a once in a lifetime job."

As well as the day to day running of the Plymouth City Council-owned, Grade 1 Listed hall, Mia's role embraces everything from finding period furnishings for the mayor's parlour and managing clients to planning and overseeing a range of events and activities.

With an academic background in textile design and art, as well as years of experience organising events, Mia was the obvious choice to guide the Guildhall into a future to match its past. Built in 1820 by John Foulston, who also designed the column, surviving Egyptian House and long-forgotten Hindu Temple, it has served as magistrates court, police barracks, prison, dance hall, music venue, basketball court and library, among other things.

Today the aim is for Devonport Guildhall to again be the centre of the community, as a meeting place and venue for events and celebration. Mia says she hopes that by opening an affordable cafe with a welcoming atmosphere, an increasing number of local people and visitors will feel more comfortable about entering.

"The front entrance, with its huge doors, columns and stone steps, are understandably a bit daunting," she said. "So by inviting people to enter the cafe through an ordinary door on the side we hope they will feel more at home and more likely to have a look around.

"We are saying: the Guildhall is here for all the community to use.

"We have people coming in who say they came to dances here during the war, sat exams here, played tennis, listened to musicians and of course used the services of Devonport Library when it was here. We hope its community role will again be important to the area. We need people to come in and we want people to feel that it's theirs to use."

As well as the cafe, the various rooms are available to hire for functions such as weddings and conferences. The main hall recently hosted a fashion show by students from Plymouth's College of Art and the venue is currently staging its first art exhibition. The show, called Cornwall Collected, features paintings, ceramics and sculpture made by clients of a RIO programme which uses the creative industries as a springboard to help unemployed people develop their career potential. Among those showing their work are Alan Burt, Tina Care-Willoughby, Jane Cooper, Faye Dobinson, Martin Ellis, Peter Fox, Jonathan Lohn, Thomas Newlands, Simon Parkinson and Julian Rowe.

Another RIO initiative is to offer self-employed workers the opportunity to "hot-desk". Mia explained that the scheme allows people who normally work from home a way of having an office and business premises at a fraction of the cost of renting a space in the normal sense.

"We have six fully-serviced desks available for hot-desk members to pre-book whenever they want," said Mia. "Each has WI-FI, access to printers, photocopiers and a landline telephone, use of the postal address and a range of other benefits. Plus hot-desk members get free or low cost use of the Guildhall's great meeting spaces and discounted prices in the cafe. We feel the Guildhall can offer less corporate, more quirky surroundings for organisations but somewhere they will find the service is impeccable."

To find out more about hot-desking, call Mia on 01752-395028 or email: guildhallhotdesk@realideas.org