Oldham’s Old Town Hall development has been selected as one of the “Restorations of the Decade” by Country Life magazine, sitting alongside London St Pancras station on a list selected by leading commentators and professionals. The development, housing a world class Odeon cinema, was picked out by Christopher Costelloe, director of the Victorian Society. He wrote:

“It was shuttered for decades and increasingly derelict, until the council took the brave decision to invest public money in a scheme to convert it as a cinema, saving a great historic building and bringing activity and life back to the heart of Oldham. Here, the very fact of the restoration is something worth celebrating. If our fractured country is to heal, we need much more of this.”