Once a state-of-the-art venue for public entertainment, the New Olympia Cinema was recently subject to a planning application from Netto Foodstores, which would involve part-demolition of the building to make way for a new supermarket, which was to include retention of the historic Art Deco façade. Next door, the Abraham Ormerod building was to be completely demolished to make way for the new car park (despite a glowing report, from English Heritage) as the developers are only interested in making money, and they hope that the local council is only interested in the words "Section 106". Both buildings are in a Conservation Area and protected by a number of local and national planning policies, however, since this video was originally uploaded, Netto have dropped plans to retain the façade and now seem content on constructing a brand new building that resembles a Victorian mill. Out go two rare examples of 1930s Architecture and in comes all manner of tasteless tat. By the way, this video was recently removed, but as you can see now it's back online. They cannot silence us... We will never give up the fight, and in the words of Tommy Scott and Franny Griffiths "we will all be waiting when the bulldozers come" Feel free to close the annoying advert at the bottom of the clip in order to watch the film in all its glory.

Comments

1. NO ITS GONE I LIVE IN TOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
2. OMG! It`s a cinema! Quick, knock it down before anyone notices. - That seems to be the trend these days and trust me - I AM cynical.
3. Just to report, cinema was demolished last month in record time. Site now completely flattened including the Abraham Ormerod building next door, all boarded off ready for site redevelopment. A crying shame and the local council should be utterly ashamed.
4. i was in this cinema last weekend doing some photos for the urbex scene , this video has been most informative for my write up !...... cheers for the ace vid n info
5. Turn it Back into a picture house
6. What a shame. I recently went to the Plaza Cinema in Crosby, just north of Liverpool. That's a similarly-sized building, but when it closed its doors the local community acquired it and continue to run it as a community picture-house. It's brilliant, it gets all the latest releases plus screenings of less commercial films, and the tickets are much cheaper than the big chains.
7. A supermarket in the centre of Todmordon is possibly the worst way to conceive a regeneration for a town like this. Plans have now been submitted to demolish everything on the site, including the frontage of the cinema. Lets have a high street, not a scandanavian box of shit.
   
   https://antisuburb.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/cinema-and-hospital-clearance-in-todmorden/
8. I do hope the facade stays and is returned to its` former state. A worthy front to any development.
9. Er okay Philistine. Good job it doesn't hinge on your vote then. Doesn't matter anyway now as Asda have shelved their development plans in Todmorden.
10. Whoever designed that olympia cinema must have also designed what was the Sol Viva in Bury. They should have sacked him/her before they built those eyesores. I vote to knock it down. The asda building looks better.
11. dont like to say it but lots of things have been pulled down in tod over the last few years. i.e kinghorns. rochdale metal units. both lovely buildings now waste land all plans to redevelop blocked by local council will end up having a a place of worship on it wonder will i be able to go to curry morning?
12. Would it, though? The independent Todmorden Council "allowed" the chopping of big gaps into the shopping streets in Todmorden in their day which left us with the disjointed and disfunctional town centre we have today
13. This sort of development will be foisted on us partly because of local opposition to Sainsbury's. seems that folk in Todmorden would prefer to have three second-rate, downmarket supermarkets than one better quality supermarket and two down-market ones. Without a doubt Todmorden needs revitalisation - but not this!
14. Another supermarket in Todmorden. How depressing.
15. ps - i remember when Mary Loney looked into homing art students at Ormorod - not enough support in restoring the building back to health to make it possible.
16. thank you so much for making/sharing this video - i've long been curious to know if there was more than a facade. The viewing gallery and backstage look quite exciting. Perhaps we could persuade the next supermarket to incorporate the theatre element to shopping.
17. @TODMORLANCS It could have been saved, if the powers that be wanted to. As for the Olympia, facade retention is obviously the best outcome, but more expensive than full demolition. Do the math.
18. @TODMORLANCS Thank you. The facade must stay and according to the local newspaper, a number of experts in building conservation have all given it the thumbs up too. I've just seen artist impression of what the replacement "mill-esque" supermarket is to look like. It's even worse than I imagined!!