BEFORE it closed, it was owned by a bank that said it didn't close branches to make way for trendy wine bars.

Now the former Nat West Bank in Wood Street is helping flog trendy flats and might become a trendy wine bar yet.

The ex-bank is currently being used by developers Prowting Homes as an information centre for The Pinnacle, its luxury flats development in nearby High Street.

But when the developers move out of the site next September, the wine bar could arrive soon after.

Prowting Homes regional director Barry Stiles told the Evening Advertiser his firm was letting the site on a month by month basis from its owners Woodband, whose application to create a wine bar there is still with Swindon Council.

With six of the 32 flats at The Pinnacle sold within a week of the information centre opening, Mr Stiles said he thought Prowting Homes' stay in Wood Street would be a fairly short one.

"It will be here as long as we need to be here," he said.

"As soon as the development's sold out, we'll probably take all other enquiries about customer care back to Richard James, our estate agents.

"It's a temporary thing. I would say we will probably only be here up to the occupation of the first Pinnacle blocks in September."

The progress of the wine bar plan has been held up for almost a year by detailed negotiations between Woodband and the council, but council spokesman Lynda Fleming said councillors would be getting a chance to vote on it soon.

"The consultations with the would-be developers are nearing an end, and we hope we'll be able to go to the committee early in the New Year," she said.

The information centre, which is open from Thursday to Monday between 10.30am and 5.30pm, features on its outside pictures of professional model Kendra, whose face has become a familiar sight on billboards around the town.

Mr Stiles said Kendra and her slogan, "It's just what I wanted", represented the company's idea of a Utopian customer, and the kind of comments she would make about a flat at The Pinnacle.

Customers calling at the information centre can view a sample kitchen and bathroom, and choose from a range of tiles and other fittings.

News of the wine bar application, in January, led to accusations from traders and community banking groups that Nat West's advertising, promising it did not close branches like other banks, was hypocritical.