“They’re not just bricks, there’s history, there’s memories” Oldham makes a play to save ‘irreplaceable’ buildings

Five of Oldham’s historic buildings could be saved from ‘rotting away’ after a £400k plan was approved by the council on Monday.

Grant and council funding will be used to design a new future for five vacant buildings, some of which are Grade-listed.

The Prudential Assurance building, the Lyceum, the Old Post Office and the Masonic Hall on Union Street and the Old Museum and Friend’s Meeting House on Greaves Street, are among the structures currently being considered.

Saving Oldham’s history

Historic England will provide a £200k grant towards the project, with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority offering £100k and Oldham Council pledging to match up to £100k. The money will come from Oldham’s Creating a Better Place fund or from profit shares they’ll receive from an arrangement with developers at Foxdenton / Broadway Green.

Town hall boss Arooj Shah said: “We all know how much pride we have for these buildings.  that people have built.”

She noted the work the council has already completed in protecting the town’s ‘amazing heritage buildings’, including renovating the Old Town Hall into a cinema and food market, restoring the Old Library and reopening Royton Town Hall.

The funding will pay for surveys and consultants, who will come up with proposals for the buildings by March 2026, which will form a part of the town’s new ‘Cultural Quarter’.

The decision comes in response to concerns raised by the local community about the ‘deterioration’ of historic buildings in the town centre, which has left Union Street looking ‘derelict’ and ‘empty’, according to local shop owners.

Prudential Assurance Building

The Grade II-listed building at 79 Union Street was recently bought by Oldham Council through a compulsory purchase order. The 135-year-old building, which towers over the Oldham Central tram stop, has stood empty for several years and become increasingly run down and overgrown.

Designed by Alfred Waterhouse – who also drew up the Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall – it was originally used by an insurance firm. Now, Townhall boss Arooj Shah has promised the council will ‘breathe new life’ into the derelict building.

Old Post Office

The Grade II-listed building was purpose-built as a post and telegraph office in 1875. Owned by the council, it’s been vacant since the Oldham Local Studies and Archives moved to the Oldham library in 2023.

Lyceum

The theatre and cultural centre on 95 Union Street is an almost 170-year-old Grade II listed building. Once home to a newsroom, reading room, library, lecture rooms, committee and club rooms, classrooms and an observatory, as well as a Science and Art school added in 1881, the building is now part occupied by the Oldham Music Service and The Lyceum Amateur Theatre. But parts of the building are falling into disrepair.

Masonic Hall

The Masonic Hall on Union Street is almost 200 years old. The huge manor, once a meeting place for local Freemasons that featured a ballroom and various entertainment rooms, has stood vacant for nearly two decades.

The council is seeking to secure formal consent from the owner to include the vacant Grade II property in the project.

Old Museum and Friends Meeting House

The iconic building on Greaves Street is still in use by the Oldham Theatre Workshop, who are due to move to the restored Old Library once works are completed. The council-owned building, built between 1867-69,  was once the town’s museum and was later taken over by the Quaker community as a Friends Meeting House.