The Libertines have announced the opening date of the band's eagerly awaited hotel in Kent.

The bar at The Albion Rooms in Margate will open its doors for the first time on August 16 - the first phase of renovations carried out by Pete Doherty and Carl Barat since 2016.

But the hotel and recording studio will open "at the end of the year", the band revealed as part of a tour announcement this week.

The bar will be called The Waste Land and is set for the summer opening.

The Libertines, who are now based in Thanet, are going back on tour for the first time in two years in the autumn to celebrate the opening of the hotel and its attached studio and bar.

Doherty and Barat spent more than £450,000 to purchase the five-storey town house on Cliftonville seafront and are converting the building into a 10-bedroom hotel.

In May, Doherty gave an interview with NME magazine saying the hotel could open as early as July.

The tour will begin in Paris before moving through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and The Netherlands in October and November.

They will then play nine dates in the UK between December 3 and 18.

Gigs take in Bournemouth, Leeds, Dundee, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol before finishing at the Brixton Academy in London.

Tickets for the tour go on sale on Friday morning with more information available from www.gigsandtours.com or www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet

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