Rochdale Town Hall: £8.3m revamp will 'give it back to the people'

A new 'Bright Hall' for community use will be created in space formerly used as offices

The National Lottery-funded restoration of Rochdale Town Hall will "give this wonderful building back to the people", the town's council leader has said.

The £8.3m grant will fund work on parts of the Grade I-listed building, including the Magna Carta mural and the Great Hall's ceiling panels.

Meeting rooms will also turned into a public area telling the town's history.

Councillor Allen Brett said the work would mean more people could "understand" and "enjoy" the town hall.

Rochdale Town Hall has hosted TV shows and film sets

Rochdale Town Hall was designed by Victorian architect William H Crossland and opened on 27 September 1871.

Its basement has been used as a jail and a nightclub and the building has also hosted sets for TV shows Peaky Blinders and Coronation Street and the film Tolkien.

The council said its restoration will include volunteering and training opportunities in areas such as stained glass and antique furniture restoration.

Mr Brett said the "brand new spaces for community use" would make it "easier for more people to move around the town hall, to understand it and to enjoy it".

"This project will give this wonderful building back to the people of Rochdale, to whom it always has and always will belong," he added.

Ornate ceiling panels in the Great Hall are set to be restored as part of the project

The work will form part of a £400m regeneration of Rochdale town centre, which includes the completion of the new shopping and leisure development, Rochdale Riverside, and the reopening of the River Roch and its historic bridge.

Work on the town hall is set to start in January, with the building due to reopen to the public in 2023.