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Alhambra Theatre, Ashton Road, Openshaw, Manchester

Manchester Index

The Alhambra Theatre in Old Ashton Road, Manchester was built in 1908 by H. A Turner and originally opened as a Music Hall with a fan shaped auditorium capable of seating 2,000 people on two levels, stalls and one balcony, with one box either side of the proscenium.

H. D. Moorehouse became the Managing Director of the Theatre soon after it opened and by 1914 it was being used as a Cinema instead of a live theatre, becoming part of the H. D. Moorehouse Circuit in 1928.

Cinema use ended in April 1960 and the Stage house and dressing rooms were gutted and converted into a restaurant, called the Al-hambra Restaurant, although it is thought that there may have been some surviving remnants of the Theatre in the restaurant itself. The auditorium was gutted and painted black for conversion into a nightclub, although the plaster front of the balcony and parts of the original sunburner in the ceiling remained. Later the auditorium was used as timber store and glass works and only the Facade remained in its original form minus the original square dome above. The night club was still in use in the 1980s but had a bad reputation by then.

The restaurant closed in 2004 and in October 2009 a fire in the Theatre's remains ended any hope for the building's future. By November 2009 what remained of the building was demolished.

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