Historic Oldham venue where The Beatles played set for demolition

A 120-year-old entertainment complex in Oldham town centre - once a theatre, cinema, ballroom, nightclub and most recently a snooker hall - is to be demolished after councillors approved plans to clear the site.

The red-brick building on King Street, empty since 2020, is expected to be replaced by a red-brick apartment tower of up to 11 storeys containing about 120 flats.

Developers Footprint Design have submitted separate proposals for the plot: 75 one-bedroom, 43 two-bedroom and two three-bedroom flats, together with ground-floor parking and space for cafés or shops. The scheme remains under review by the council’s planning committee.

Built in 1904 as the Grand Theatre to designs by London architects Thomas Taylor and Ernest Simister, the venue became the Gaumont cinema in 1937, its ornate auditorium stripped back to stalls and a single circle seating 1,842. After the cinema closed in 1961 the hall reopened as the Astoria Ballroom, hosting The Beatles’ only Oldham performance in 1963.

Subsequent incarnations included a bowling alley, the nightclub Romeo & Juliet’s, Riley’s Snooker Hall and, from 2010, the Thunderdome training base for Rainy City Roller Derby. The roller-derby group lost its lease in 2020; the building was sold the following year for £825,000, Land Registry records show.

Unused since then, the structure has become overgrown and drawn urban explorers. One resident has objected to the demolition, urging retention of “as much of the original fabric and features of interest as possible”. No date for the 12-week demolition has been fixed, though pedestrian diversions along Chaucer Street will be required.

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