Oldham Coliseum Theatre

Oldham Coliseum Theatre stands on Fairbottom Street in Oldham town centre. Built in 1885 as a timber circus building, it was dismantled and rebuilt on its present site in 1887. The theatre opened as the Colosseum with a circus performance before becoming a repertory theatre. It served as a music hall and briefly as a cinema in the early 20th century. The building was converted back into a theatre in 1939 by Oldham Repertory Theatre Club. Major renovations in the 1960s replaced timber sections with masonry and modernised the exterior. The theatre is notable for its stage, once 42 feet wide, and its early air-conditioning system. Performers like Charlie Chaplin appeared there during its music hall years. The building also has a reported haunting; Harold Norman died on stage in 1947 during a performance of *Macbeth* and his ghost is said to linger. The theatre was once the largest outside London to lose Arts Council funding before a campaign led by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh secured its refurbishment. Visitors to the Coliseum find a theatre with a reduced capacity of 670 seats. The stage house was rebuilt in the 1970s with a new fly tower and an orchestra pit added. An extension houses an education studio and a café-bar. The façade reflects modernisations from different eras, while the interior retains traces of its circus and theatre past. The building’s history is visible in its structure, from the stable block to the modern safety curtain.