‘Landmark’ building that once hosted The Beatles in Oldham to be demolished

A former theatre, nightclub and snooker hall where the Beatles once gigged is about to be bulldozed in Oldham town centre.

The 120-year-old entertainment venue once known as Riley’s Snooker Hall was approved for demolition last week. 

The building on King Street, which has stood empty for several years, will likely make way for residential apartments.

Further plans still under consideration by the townhall propose turning the site into an 11-story apartment block with around 120 one, two and three-bed flats.

Developers Footprint Design want to turn the former complex into a tall red-brick block comprising 75 one-beds, 43 two-beds and two three-bedroom apartments. 

If approved, the tower would also include a ground floor car park with spaces for shops and cafes. 

The ‘landmark’ Riley Snooker Hall building has a long and varied history in the town.

It was last used as a training ground for the Rainy City Roller Derby team under the name of the Thunderdome.

The group lost the lease of the building in 2020 after ten years, and it was later flogged commercially for £825k in 2022, according to the Land Registry. 

But the site originally started out as the Grand Theatre, a performance space designed by London architects Thomas Taylor and Ernest Simister who also designed Chadderton Town Hall. 

In 1937, Gaumont Super Cinemas took over the building, gutted the ‘elaborate’ auditorium and transformed it into a ‘much simpler space’ of just stalls and one circle seating totalling 1,842 to open their 1930s cinema. 

After closing as a cinema in 1961 it later, briefly, became a concert hall called The Astoria Ballroom. The Beatles performed their only Oldham gig there in 1963. 

Over the years, the building has also been home to a bowling alley and a nightclub, including the famous Romeo and Juliet's, and then a snooker hall.

It became disused and was nearly demolished in 2008-2009 before being taken over by the roller derby group.

But for the last five years, the building has lain empty and overgrown, becoming a derelict ‘eyesore’ at the entrance to the town and attracting urban explorers. 

The new plans for the former theatre have received one objection, which lamented the loss of the ‘complete loss’ of the Grand Theatre, and called for a design that would ‘retain as much of the original fabric and features of interest as possible’. 

It is unclear when the demolition will start.

But the works will take 12 weeks and result in the temporary diversion of pedestrians along Chaucer Street.

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