Grand Theatre, Leek

The Assembly Rooms were modified to create a cinema, which opened in 1907 as the Assembly Rooms Cinema, the name being changed to Plaza in 1958. In 1970 it was bought by Leeds City Council and restored, becoming the home of Opera North in 1978. For many years it was programmed by Howard & Wyndham Ltd and staged plays, musicals, pantomime and revues. The theatre closed at the end of May 2005 for a major refurbishment, transformation, and it reopened on 7 October 2006 with a production of Verdi's Rigoletto. The Stalls area was completely re-seated and re-raked, the orchestra-pit enlarged, technical facilities dramatically improved, and improvements to Opera North to the south of the theatre,…

It was designed by James Robinson Watson, chief assistant in the office of Leeds-based architect George Corson, and opened on 18 November 1878. It was built as a complex in three parts: the theatre, a set of six shops and Assembly Rooms, all facing onto New Briggate, in High Victorian style of red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof, the whole being a Grade II* listed building. The exterior is in a mixture of Romanesque and Scottish baronial styles, and the interior has such Gothic motifs as fan-vaulting and clustered columns.