The five ‘irreplaceable’ historic buildings falling into disrepair - and the £400k plan to save them
Oldham Council has approved a £400k plan to save five historic buildings from disrepair, with funding from Historic England, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and the council itself. The buildings include the Prudential Assurance building, the Lyceum, the Old Post Office, the Masonic Hall, and the Old Museum and Friend’s Meeting House. The funds will be used for surveys and proposals to revitalize these structures as part of the town's new 'Cultural Quarter' by March 2026.
Five crumbling landmarks that have scarred Oldham’s skyline for years will be rescued from decay under a £400,000 rescue package approved by councillors last night.
The Prudential Assurance Building, the 170-year-old Lyceum, the 1875 Old Post Office, the near-200-year-old Masonic Hall on Union Street and the Old Museum and Friends Meeting House on Greaves Street - all Grade II-listed and all empty - are to receive urgent surveys and restoration plans that will feed into a new Cultural Quarter for the town centre. Historic England is contributing £200,000, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority £100,000 and Oldham Council up to £100,000 drawn from its Creating a Better Place fund or future profits from the Foxdenton/Broadway Green development. Consultants must deliver viable reuse proposals by March 2026.
Council leader Arooj Shah said the decision “will breathe new life” into structures that have been repeatedly highlighted by residents as symbols of decline. Shop owners along Union Street - where four of the five buildings stand - have described the strip as “derelict” and “empty” as roofs leak, stone work crumbles and vegetation takes hold. The Prudential Assurance Building, designed by Natural History Museum architect Alfred Waterhouse, has been boarded up since the council compulsorily purchased the 135-year-old property, while the Masonic Hall has sat silent for almost two decades since the last Freemasons left its ballroom. Inside the Lyceum, home now only to Oldham Music Service and an amateur theatre company, plaster is falling and timbers are rotting.
Ownership of the sites is split between the council and private landlords; officers are now seeking formal consent from the Masonic Hall’s owner to include it in the project. Once surveys are complete, the resulting blueprint will decide whether the buildings become galleries, studios, cafés or co-working spaces, but officials insist every façade and Victorian detail will be retained.
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