Back tracking toward Phoenix House – with its implausible heron.
It’s been four years since the Department of Work and Pensions left their Union Street office and eighteen months since plans were submitted to turn it into eighty two flats.
However, apart from hoardings being installed around the building, there doesn’t appear to have been much movement at the site – at least not legally.
Linking to the older Library and Art Gallery 1883 T Mitchell with sculpture by JJ Milson.
Today the building has been restored to include the Council Chamber and Mayor’s Dining Room, public exhibition spaces and a new home for Oldham Theatre Workshop.
The Old Library is one of the earliest examples of an ashlar faced, in-situ formed concrete multi story building.
Take a turn up Greaves Street and here’s a faience clad Victoria Housea former Billiard Club 1912 Winder & Taylor – subsequently the hall was used as council housing offices and a college before becoming vacant.
Oldham Boxing moved into the building in 2011.
Next door a Ponsonby And Carlile Solicitors Office 1902 Edgar Wood – Grade II Listed.
Back now onto Union Street and the GMB Offices.
Onwards to the former Oldham Evening Chronicle
Down the hill and left to the Walshaw Street Bus Depot 1936
Next we head up Yorkshire Street to Harry’s Bar – formerly The Artizans Rest 1937.
Architects: CT Taylor – Roberts & Bowman.
In 2025, it was revealed by the Manchester Evening News that Oldham council planned to buy the building and demolish it with the price tag for the project reported to be £1m. The money comes from a £2.5m pot of regeneration finding given to the local authority by the government.
Just around the corner is the former Kings Picture Hall – currently Bees Knees.
Located in the town centre, directly opposite the Coliseum Theatre. The King’s Picture Hall was opened 18th September 1911. In October 1912 a café was opened in the building adding a further amenity to the cinema. In 1929 it was equipped with a British Thomson Houston sound system.
The King’s Picture Hall was closed on 25th June 1966 with Ryo Ikebe in Battle in Outer Space and Randolph Scott in Comanche Territory.
On 2nd July 1966 it was converted into a bingo club.
A stand of shops – stepped the accommodate the incline, partially clad in Westmorland Slate.
Oldham Town Centre now has a new high-quality public space – Parliament Square
Six new restaurant units will be located within the Old Town Hallalongside a brand new 800-seat, seven screen ODEON cinema.
BDP 2017
A stunning glass extension to the side of the Grade II-listedbuilding provides access to the various levels of the cinema and is also the frontage to the new restaurants.
George Woodhouse of Bolton 1841, extended by Edward Potts of Oldham 1879-80.
To the left is a statue of Springhead born Annie Kenney – political activist, socialist feminist and suffragette, modelled by Denise Dutton, unveiled 14 December 2018.
The Egyptian Room Food Hall project extends BDP’s partnership with Oldham Council and the rejuvenated Grade II listed Old Town Hall building in Oldham town centre, the main transformation of which was also designed and delivered by BDP.
The Loom is a brand new events space next to Oldham’s new indoor market on Parliament Square in the town centre. The gala-sized event space can fit up to one thousand standing guests, seven hundred seated, or five hundred dining, or can be split-off into smaller rooms for exhibitions, gigs, or theatre performances.
Design for a war memorial chapel, St Mary’s Church 1920.
Architect: Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day.
Artist: H Lewis Curtis.
Image: RIBA pix
Next to the former Yorkshire Bank 1970 John Brunton& Partners.
Under construction 1970
Image: Kayla Chadwick
Down to the Spindles Shopping Centre 1991
Originally the site of St Peter’s Shopping Centre architect Richard Seifert
St Peter’s House – housed Oldham Area Health Authority Administrative Offices
Between 1990 and 1993, Brian Clarke designed a series of three interrelated roof lights in stained glass for the Spindles Shopping Centre in his hometown of Oldham, Lancashire. Among the largest stained glass windows in Europe, and some of the largest public artworks in the UK, these panels connect the main public areas of the principal shopping centre in the town.
No town walk would be complete without a former Burton’s.
Next to the Bus Stations 2008 Austin-Smith Lord situated either side of the Civic Centre.
The Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham will soon open its doors for the last time before it permanently closes to the public and is prepared for demolition.Since being condemned for containing Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – RAAC in 2023, its days have been numbered.
Now the old theatre is part of plans to bring 2,000 new homes into the town centre in a partnership between Oldham Council and the developers Muse.
Chris Connor as Elvis at the Oldham Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Surrounded on two sides by the Civic Centre – the lower parts are by Richard Seifert & Partners 1962, the fourteen storey Tower and Hall 1974-78 are by Cecil Howitt & Partners.
Plans are underway at the civic centre, the largest site in the regeneration project, to create a vibrant community providing eight hundred and thirty eight homes rising up to fifteen-storeys with mixed-use commercial spaces on the ground floor. This development will integrate seamlessly with the surrounding neighbourhood, particularly the nearby Former Magistrates’ Court site. The Civic Tower at the edge of the site will be retained and redeveloped as a hotel in a later phase.
Where have the Magistrates’ Courts gone?
Architects: Leach Rhodes Walker 1977.
Demolished in 2019 to make way for further redevelopment.
The proposals for the Former Magistrates Court site include two hundred and nineteen new homes with the tallest block ten-storeys and a green route connecting Manchester Chambers with King Street. The designs have been developed to ensure a unified neighbourhood with a common design language and seamless movement between other sites.
Oldham Council and Muse intend to work in partnership over the next 15 years to develop the sextet of council-owned brownfield sites across the town centre.
Viewed across the site where Bailey’s used to be – aka Romeo & Juliet’s, Butterflies, Astoria ballroom and Bowling Alley, Froggies and Riley’s.
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 Cinemastook over the building, gutted the auditorium and transformed it into stalls and one circle seating totalling 1,842 to open their 1930s cinema.
In 1991, the Chronicle reported on a mysterious haunting which was thought to have taken place in Butterfly’s nightclub in Oldham.
Before Butterfly’s had been a nightclub the building had been used for many purposes, and in 1939 was known as the ‘Grand Theatre.’ The building was undergoing renovations when Mr Lloyd was killed. ‘Witnesses said that Mr Lloyd was crushed underneath the beam which he was trying to guide down with a rope.’
However, Derek Lloyd’s theory of the origin of the ghost was not accepted by everyone at the time. Due to the fact the ghost appeared to be wearing a white T-shirt, people believed it was unlikely to be the spirit of a 1930s man. In response, Derek argued that ‘my father always had his sleeves rolled up at work because he suffered from a skin complaint.’
Dominating Oldham for most part of the decade was Co-op’s Shopping Giant. It was a great place where you could stock up on your groceries and buy non-food items. It boasted its own Handybank, had a separate chemist opposite the main store and a fast food restaurant – qv Food and Drink section. Cars parked on the roof and at ground level with access via trolley-friendly escalators.
Other delights included Mario’s salon – on Manchester Street underneath the main store, and an ice cream stand by the entrance nearest the Bank Top Tavern.
Nothing, like everything lasts forever – so you became the Mecca Bingo Hall.
Being something of a car park aficionado I couldn’t resist walking up the ramp to take a look around.
To the right is the tower of the Civic Centre, it was designed by Cecil Howitt & Partners, and the topping out ceremony was held on 18 June 1976.
Plans are underway at the Civic Centre, the largest site in the regeneration project, to create a vibrant community providing 838 homes rising up to 15-storeys with mixed-use commercial spaces on the ground floor. This development will integrate seamlessly with the surrounding neighbourhood, particularly the nearby Former Magistrates’ Court site.
The Civic Tower at the edge of the site will be retained and redeveloped as a hotel in a later phase.
On a February morning the streets were well behaved and consisted of a typical mix of nineteenth century terraces and postwar semis, the residents chatty and welcoming, whilst they went about their business.
There are different causes that can make a street name controversial:
A person, organisation or event who or which was once honoured with a street name is subsequently thought to not or no longer deserve one, for example because that person later turned out to be a criminal.
A group of street names – for example in a residential area, is deemed to be unrepresentative for the population of that place, region or country because some demographics are overrepresented and others underrepresented, for example, because a disproportionate number of streets are named after men, and few after women.
Research has found that if you live on Pear Tree Lane your property is more likely to attract potential buyers and a higher price, than those living in a similar property on Crotch Lane.
What are the guidelines for street naming?
The exclusion or inclusion of certain numbers for cultural or religious reasons
The use of building names without numbers
New building or street names should not begin with The
The use of street names which include numbers that can confuse, for example – 20 Seven Foot Lane sounds the same as 27 Foot Lane
The use of the names of deceased people in the adoption of any street names. The reason for choosing a person’s name should be established in the council’s policy
The use of the name of a living person – it’s not recommended
The adoption of historic connotations by developers – guidance on this should be provided by the council to all developers through close liaison with local historic societies.
The use of national or local historic figures or events
The use of a name with Royal connotations – the Lord Chamberlain’s office must be contacted if a name has any reference to the Royal family or if the word ‘Royal’ is suggested.
The use of names and their combination with numbers that could be considered rude, obscene, and racist or contravene any aspect of the council’s equal opportunities policies
The use of names and their combination with numbers that could be easily vandalised or changed into any of the above, for example – Canal Turn
The use of names that can cause spelling or pronunciation problems
The use of names that can be construed to be used for advertising or commercial gain
The use of names would lead to variations in the use of punctuation as these can confuse or result in early demands for a change of address from occupiers.
So in summary the name Bland does not in my opinion represent the close’s appearance and may in fact detract from the value of the property and possibly the perception of the area.
The A62, which runs from Manchester to Leeds, via Oldham and Huddersfield, was once the main route across the Pennines, connecting the largest city in Lancashire with Yorkshire’s largest city. However with the completion of the M62 towards Leeds in the early 1970s it lost much of its importance and traffic to the motorway, which runs a few miles to the north. These days, the A62 serves as a busy primary route between Manchester and Oldham, an extremely very quiet route over the Pennines, and then a fairly busy local road linking Huddersfield with Leeds.
Most maps show that the A62 starts its journey in the middle of Manchester by leaving the A6 Piccadilly and running along Lever Street – the original route was the parallel Oldham Street. However, owing to a bus gate Lever Street is not generally accessible from Piccadilly. We head out easterly on a busy street – non–primary, until we meet the Ring Road where we pick up primary status that we retain until Oldham. We turn left at this point and then immediately right to start the A62 proper.
In 2014, having taken early retirement from teaching photography, I embarked on a series of walks along the arterial roads of Manchester.
This whole undertaking was prompted in part by Charlie Meecham’s 1980’s Oldham Road project.
The work questions whether a sense of local identity can be maintained in an area of constant redevelopment and community displacement.
This area was first developed in the 19th century for cotton manufacture, coal extraction and later electrical and heavy engineering. The road was lined with shops and there was a vibrant community.
When I first started working on the project, most of the early industry had ceased operating and the mills were either abandoned or being dismantled. However, some had been refurbished either for new industrial use or later, made into apartments. Some run down areas were cleared making way for new housing. Clearance also provided opportunity to build new schools, trading estates and create green space. Most of the older community centres such as theatres and cinemas along the road were also abandoned and later cleared.
A typical example of a post-war church built to serve a growing residential suburb; it retains some attractive ‘Festival of Britain’ features and fittings.
The church was built to seat 360, with room for fifty people in the Lady Chapel. The architect was Geoffrey Williams of Greenhalgh & Williams, the builder Whitworth, Whittaker & Co Ltd of Oldham, and the cost £27,140. Bishop Beck blessed the foundation stone on 7 December 1957, and the church was formally opened in 1958.
It’s a long straight uphill Roman road to Holy Family.
Well worth the effort to visit a well kept suburban church, constructed with load bearing walls faced in brown and buff bricks and steel roof trusses. The shallow-pitched roof was originally clad in copper but is now felted, flat roof areas are concrete.
Life is full of little surprises, to turn from Middleton Road into Milne Street in downtown Chadderton and discover a triangular, blue-grey brick tower soaring into the September sky.
So solid geometries pierced by rectangular, triangular and angular gridded windows, deservedly Grade II Listed in 1998, made all the more extraordinary by its seemingly ordinary surroundings.
The interior mixes tradition with modernity, reusing pews and fragments of stained glass. Restrained natural lighting, complemented by slatted wooden, almost oriental boxed light shades. The furniture, fixtures and fittings bringing together a coherent decorative order.
The whole an uplifting and embracing space, punctuated by the curved y-shaped wooden supports, rising to the timber framed roof structure.
It was a pleasure to meet the current incumbent Father Stephen and a privilege to spend some time exploring this altogether delightful and impressive church.
G.G. Pace 1960-63 – Blue engineering brick; graduated slate to pitched roofs – low pitched to church and entrance and steeply pitched to tower. Concrete dressings around windows. Five sided aisled space, three walls being orthoganal and the liturgical north side being canted outwards to provide room for the choir. Entrance with narthex to west and west also is a small rectangular chapel. Corner site, the corner itself dominated by a low rectangular brick tower with a high gabled roof. Four bay nave, the bays separated by buttresses and with rectangular windows set in varying groups high in the wall. West wall of nave is visible, and secondary glazing has been sensitively installed over the west window between the western buttresses. Thick exposed board-marked concrete beam at eaves. On return elevation, tower is flush with small chapel, with irregular groups of rectangular windows to both. Rectangular leaded lights. Recessed entrance with two doors of timber and leaded-glazing in vertical strips. Liturgical north and south faces of the tower each has a stack of 14 small pointed louvres. Jutting gutter spouts in exposed board-marked concrete.
Internally the bays are divided by three pairs of varnished laminated timber `y’ shaped supports and trusses, supporting timber trussed purlins (with prominent bolts) and timber rafters. Walls are white-painted brick with exposed board-marked concrete bands, which act as bonding strips between brick piers and as lintels for windows. Original altar of limed timber with four pairs of legs, is in original position, set forward from the east wall. Sanctuary raised by two steps. Limed timber pulpit, also chunky and so is altar rail with thick black metal supports and thick limed timber handrail. Priest’s chair to match, against east wall. Black metal crucifix also in characteristic Pace manner. Stone sedilia built into the north and south walls of the sanctuary. East window with stained glass which comprises broken and reset fragments of nineteenth-century glass. Font sited in central aisle towards the west end; this is of tooled cream stone, the bowl comprising a monolithic cylinder, flanked by a smaller cylinder which rises higher and has a prominent spout. Elaborate font cover in roughly textured cast aluminium, rising to flame-like pinnacles. Reused nineteenth-century benches, painted semi-matt black. Narthex and west chapel with limed timber doors, which have decorative nail-heads in rows. West chapel has open truss timber roof, painted white. Sanctuary light and cross are characteristic of Pace’s style.
A fine example of Pace’s idiosyncratic manner, this church shows the influence of the Liturgical Movement, especially in the forward placement of the altar.
The first mission in the Fitton Hill, a post-war housing estate, was due to the work of Fr Buckley, an assistant priest at St Patrick’s Oldham. He arranged for the purchase of land in the Fitton Hill area in 1940, before the new housing was built. Once the estate had begun to be developed, Fr Buckley said Mass in an upper room in Maple Mill. The foundation stone of Holy Rosary was laid by Bishop Marshall on 2 October 1954 and the church was officially opened by Mgr Cunningham in July 1955. The presbytery was built in about 1970. The first campanile blew down and had to be rebuilt. In 2009, the parishes of Holy Family and Holy Rosary were merged.
Taking Stock told me so and will tell you even more.
Architect: W and JB Ellis who were also responsible for Our Lady of The Assumption in Langley.
I first passed by one sunny day in April 2016 – happily snapping the exterior of this ever so pleasingly prosaic Italianate brick building.
Following a cue from pal Tim Rushton, I was alerted to the significant decorative work within.
The mosaic and fresco work of Georg Mayer-Marton – born in Hungary 1897, died in Liverpool 1960 was one of Britain’s very few experts in the art of face or facetted mosaic.
Sadly the fresco is no longer visible – painted over with emulsion when thought to be too tatty – a tiny fragment has been revealed by conservators.
There is currently a campaign to restore and preserve these important works.
The church is now closed, but we were ever so fortunate to have Bernard Madden on hand to open up and show us around, a warm welcoming space once full to overflowing.
Attached to the Civic Centre, developed and opened in 1977, to commemorate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, she ain’t no human being, she’s a building.
An low exterior slab of classical municipal modernism, with a series of wonderful and surprising new attachments, ideal for all occasions!
The most amazing set of heavily patinated, square sectioned, inorganic pipes which are precipitously cantilevered onto the front elevation.
Illuminating!
The lobby boasts further exotic lighting, this time on the ceiling, and applied metal reliefs attached to the back wall and booking office.
I’ve never been in the main auditorium, yet – but life is full of little surprises.
Others have – boxers, boozers, bands, concerts, carousers, dancers, thespians – the lot.
The council have a mind to put a stop to all this wayward architecture and replace it something new, shiny and anonymous.
But they’re having to wait for the Men from the Ministry to cough up the cash – which may or may not be tied up in a nearby Northern Powerhouse, Mr Osbornemay just have to be lead up the A62 by the nose, with a promise of the most popular Tea Dance in the area.
I do advise you to go and have a look before you can’t.
“The Civic Centre tower is the Oldham’s centre of local governance. The fifteen storey building has housed the vast majority of the council’s offices since its completion in 1977. Standing at the summit of the town, the tower stands over 200 feet 61 m high. It was designed by Cecil Howitt & Partners,and the topping out ceremony was held on 18 June 1976.The Civic Centre can be seen from as far away as Salford, Trafford, Wythenshawe and Winter Hill in Lancashire, and offers panoramic views across the city of Manchester and the Cheshire Plain.”
The low parts are by Richard Seifert & Partners 1962.
Part of the building joins onto an older office block which dates from the mid-1960s. That was originally headquarters for Oldham’s Regional Health Authority before their move to St. Peter’s Precinct.
I just stand back and gaze in wide wonder at this white giant resplendent against deep blue late Winter skies. High above the surrounding areas of Greater Manchester, it is more than a sum of its parts. The finest materials and finish, bold, optimistic and modern, singing of a civic pride that refuses to be diminished.
Having survived the slow and painful exodus of the cotton industry, and the consequent years of municipal under funding, Oldham is rebuilding itself, with this gem at its centre.
Modern Mooch 