Everything we know about plans for Oldham Coliseum revamp

The Oldham Coliseum has been saved.

But there is much work to be completed before the 139-year-old theatre is ready to open its doors for the 2025 Panto season. 

Oldham council has officially agreed to a £10m investment into the venue, which closed its doors in March 2023 after losing its funding from Arts Council England. 

At a cabinet meeting on Monday (July 16), council leader Arooj Shah promised to mobilise a ‘major refurbishment program’ to bring the much-loved theatre back into working order, following an announcement last week that the building on Fairbottom Street would once again become the home of the Coliseum. 

But that’s no enviable task, with some ‘major maintenance works’ needed before the venue can pass health and safety checks. 

The first priorities will be fixing structural issues, including the removal of the remaining asbestos in the building.

Some of the asbestos was removed in a 2012 refurbishment, but remaining amounts of the dangerous material still pose a risk if damaged during the refurbishment works. 

Heating and lighting issues will also be fixed in the initial phase of the works.

Later plans include making the performance space and the backstage area more accessible for wheelchair users. 

Some furniture and equipment will also need to be replaced as the rows of chairs have been removed from the auditorium, along with a lighting rig. 

The Coliseum is also due a much-needed lick of paint and other improvements to its exterior. 

Coun Shah said she was ‘glad’ the announcement had been made and that ‘we can now shout from the rooftops that the Oldham Coliseum has been saved’. 

When Arts Council England (ACE) withdrew funding in 2023, bosses cited ‘management concerns’ and dubbed the theatre financially ‘very high risk’.

The Coliseum now has a new management board and together with the council, ACE and the GMCA Culture team has been trying to work out how to ‘future-proof’ the venue.

While ACE has provided the council with £1.8m over three years to support a creative and cultural programme in the borough, Coun said she Shah believes the answer lies in a ‘collaborative’ approach.

She said: “We will work in partnership with the cultural sector to create a truly cooperative approach because we want people to put culture right at the heart of the new town centre that we are building.”

According to the report, this that also see the Coliseum operating under a ‘co-operative community collaboration model’, though the exact details of this are still being worked out. 

It could also see the Coliseum charging rent to some of the groups who use it in order to secure its own future.

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