Showstopping cinema has the wow factor...

New Town Hall and Odeon cinema development preview tour. PIC shows screen 5 with restored artworks.

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HERITAGE features and contemporary design blend together at Oldham's Old Town Hall cinema and leisure complex.

As final preparations are completed ahead of the grand public opening of the seven-screen Odeon cinema and Costa cafe on Friday, the Oldham Chronicle and other guests were given a first-glimpse tour of the grade II-listed building and the £37 million restoration it has undergone.

Visitors to the new cinema will be able to enjoy blockbuster films inside auditoria set into the town hall's original rooms, including the ballroom and former court houses.

Original features, including the grand staircase, doors, floors and artwork have been painstakingly preserved, repaired and restored to be featured throughout the building, including in the corridors and cinema screens themselves.

The former courthouse, where criminals would appear before magistrates, has been transformed into an auditorium with the original judge's bench preserved and on display behind a retractable cinema screen. Plasterwork sculptures and timber wall panelling have been repaired or recreated with the fabric of the seats themselves coloured to match the original room design.

Murals depicting life in Oldham, including working in the cotton mills and other industries, have also been restored and reinstalled in their original location and are now illuminated inside their modern surroundings of a cinema auditorium.

Other historical pieces of interest, including original posters and programmes from the opening of the former Oldham Odeon cinema in the 1930s, line the corridors for visitors to view as they enter the seven different screens.

Odeon have also installed their state-of-the-art iSense screen at the development, making it one of only four currently available in the country,

The screen uses 4K projectors and 9 million pixels to showcase movies in unparalleled detail while the floor-to-ceiling Dolby ATMOS sound system delivers an immersive experience for visitors.

A stunning "light box" extension, which has been constructed with 257 illuminated glazed panels, commands views out to the newly created public space named Parliament Square, and will include the entrance to the complex and six new restaurants, including Nandos, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Loungers, which are set to open this year.

Council Leader Jean Stretton said: "It is absolutely fantastic to see how the Town Hall has been regenerated.

"The way the heritage elements have been combined with a contemporary cinema is stunning.

"Instead of leaving the building to rot, it has been changed into something people can enjoy again.

"It is entirely unique ­- there is nothing like it anywhere in the country.

"After a long absence, the people of Oldham deserve to have a town centre cinema and it is brilliant to be able to say this new Odeon will have state-of-the-art technology.

"We are ambitious for Oldham and this is the flagship project in a regeneration programme designed to transform it into a great place for residents, visitors and businesses."

Architects BDP, which were appointed to the project in 2011, had to battle with 30 years of decay within the building, including roof deterioration, dry rot and damp, in order to renovate the town hall into its new purpose.

They were able to retain all three fine sandstone and red brick elevations of the existing building and also restore the finest of the surviving decorated rooms, including the former home of the Borough Treasurer's rates hall, the Egyptian Room, which will become one of new restaurants.

Alan Davies, BDP project director, says: "The fusion of the heritage elements with the contemporary design has been the most difficult aspect of the process, but also the part we are most proud of.

"The building itself had been completed in three stages, 1841, 1879 and 1917, which meant there were a variety of different levels inside and links between each section to take into consideration.

"It was a challenge spatially to create seven cinema screens within the building as well as ensure they are contained and acoustically isolated within the complex."

BDP's design team worked collaboratively with Oldham Council, Kier Services civil, structural and environmental engineers, Odeon's architects Ellis Williams, artists Dan Dubowitz and Benedict Philips, main contractor Morgan Sindall and their supply chain.

Duncan Reynolds, managing director for Odeon and UCI Cinemas in the UK and Ireland, said: "People are going to be blown away by the way the town hall has been transformed from a derelict building into a modern cinema.

"It is the first time we have built a cinema complex inside a historic, listed building.

"It is unlike any cinema in the country and we hope the people of Oldham will enjoy it."

The Old Town Hall development will see the creation of more than 230 new jobs and it will be worth an estimated £5.4 million to the local economy, drawing around 224,000 extra visitors every year.

UPDATE: Have a look at our video slideshow containing more pictures of interior of the new cinema and then try out our competition.