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Historic Winston Churchill Town Hall in danger of collapse...
Oldham Chronicle ^ | 4/09/08 | Janice Barker

Posted on 09/08/2008 5:18:54 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan

The crumbling shame of our town hall

Reporter: by Janice Barker Date online: 04/09/2008

Oldham Town Hall is only months away from a major roof collapse and a heavy snowfall this winter could see it off.

It would cost £25 million to £30 million to restore its roof, walls and interior so the grade II listed building could be put to any use.

Chunks of masonry are falling from the ceilings on a daily basis and heavy cast-iron decoration is breaking away from balconies.

Fireplaces, brass door decorations, furniture and plaster mouldings have been plundered, and the floors are littered with dead pigeons.

Historic civic furniture, chairs, decorations and bookcases stored behind steel doors inside are being moved out urgently before the ballroom ceiling falls in on them.

A 90 minute tour yesterday with councillors and council building experts revealed that the building is literally rotting away.

A huge ornate plaster dome in the 1917 extension at the back of the building has fallen to the floor, and the others are breaking away.

(Excerpt) Read more at oldham-chronicle.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: britain; churchill; oldham; uk
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The Labour dominated councils of Oldham of the past decade have allowed this historic building, upon whose steps no less a man than Winston Churchill was proclaimed a Member of Parliament for the first time in 1900 after his daring escape from a Boer POW camp, to fall into collapse and ruin. The cost to make it safe sounds too high to be practical, but if there is any chance it can be saved, I thought it cannot do any harm to bring it's plight to wider attention...
1 posted on 09/08/2008 5:18:56 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

that is what happens when the WRONG people are in government.


2 posted on 09/08/2008 5:25:14 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Oldham Town Hall


3 posted on 09/08/2008 5:40:18 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

so yet again Labour ignore anything English and the history and still carry on giving tot he Pakistani community

and they wonder why there are riots and fights between English and pakistani every night nearly.

they wonder why there is a wall splitting the two communities apart because each other do not like each other.

They wonder why the likes of the BNP are gaining ground around there


4 posted on 09/08/2008 5:40:21 AM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: television is just wrong

It’s a crying shame because when this Town Hall was built, Oldham was renowned nationwide for the thrift and work ethic of it’s population. They survived the cotton famine of 1861-65 better than just about every other cotton town in the district because the workers grafted and saved and because the town’s entrepeneurs turned the town into the world’s leading centre in cotton-waste dealing.
To contemplate demolition of this historic building is like London contemplating razing the Tower of London to the ground, or New York city bulldozing Federal Hall...


5 posted on 09/08/2008 5:44:09 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Just have our federal government help out. It seems to think it can prop up everything else.


6 posted on 09/08/2008 5:48:30 AM PDT by thesharkboy (<-- Looking for the silver lining in every cloud, since 1998)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Just take all the welfare money being handed out to muslim terrorists on the dole and use it for something of significance.


7 posted on 09/08/2008 6:39:28 AM PDT by Iron Munro (The Alaskan landscape is littered with the bodies of those who have crossed Sarah Palin)
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To: yankeedame

I’ve had the misfortune to work in many of these old town halls. Every one of them was frankly unfit for its modern purpose offering cramped office accomodation and making cabling for IT systems a nightmare with thick walls and asbestos ridden areas.

Why should we spend more taxpayers money on old buildings ? Local government is not some tourist attraction, it needs suitable facilities. If someone private developer wants to turn it into apartments or something else then good for them.

As for Churchill standing on the steps once, so what ? He stood on a lot of places and we aren’t going to save all of them.


8 posted on 09/10/2008 2:48:09 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Not really, these towns are not going to stay in a Victorian time warp as much as some people think they should. A private developer needs to step in if its commercially viable, if not its not for Oldham taxpayers to pay for some obsolete building as if the town was a living museum.


9 posted on 09/10/2008 2:51:07 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: manc

Riots every night ? Must be small ones. There was one in 2004 but what about all these other ones ?


10 posted on 09/10/2008 2:53:14 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: Stolly

The council owns this building, they had a duty of care to ensure that it was kept in a reasonable state of preservation, but they never sold it off or did anything with it. They just boarded it up and left it to rot....


11 posted on 09/10/2008 2:59:01 PM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: Stolly

“As for Churchill standing on the steps once, so what ? He stood on a lot of places and we aren’t going to save all of them.”

Churchill became an MP for the FIRST TIME and made his first ever speech as a sitting MP on the steps of this building...


12 posted on 09/10/2008 3:06:30 PM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: Stolly

if you read it then you would have seen riots and fights nearly every night

see you never saw fight or you never mentioned them

Pakistani Muslims have been segregating themselves form the natives since the 60’s

Now there are problems in many areas

remember when a small group of NF went into a pub in Bradford and it kicked off for days

the BBC interviewed these pakistani and they said

they have no right coming here them English this is our place

er sorry Pakistani but English can go any where they want in the country and if they don’t like it tough


13 posted on 09/10/2008 3:57:40 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

think he is trolling mate


14 posted on 09/10/2008 3:59:06 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: Stolly

why should pakistani’s take tax money for their or what they call their areas when we have beautiful British buildings what need repairing

instead of commmunity centres etc then spend the money on a peiove of history

trouble with the left loons is that they want to destroy anything to do with Britain as they are obsessed about their diversity

diversity which doesn’t work


15 posted on 09/10/2008 4:01:54 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: Iron Munro

exactly

pakistani own a shop with God knows how many kids they have banged out but the kids take dole money but work at the shop then drive around in say a BMW and try to pick up little school girls thinking they are some kind of American ghetto gangster.
Or they go around trying to find one white lad by himself and beat him up instead of fighting one on one.

now that is something which they are famous for


16 posted on 09/10/2008 4:04:24 PM PDT by manc (Marriage is between a man and a woman no sick Ma sham marriage - -end racism end affirmative action)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Does that mean the building must be preserved in aspic for all enternity ?

What about the location of his last speech ? How about when he became PM ? Pehaps the spot where he composed his most famous speeches ?

Don’t you pay enough taxes ? Want to pay more ?


17 posted on 09/12/2008 3:39:06 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: manc

That isn’t a beautiful building, its another northern town hall. Every northern town has one. Its not even stone all the way around like Leeds townhall. Its just cheap brick.


18 posted on 09/12/2008 3:40:51 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: manc

I know all about the Bradford riot of 2004, i was there the morning after.

What about all these other ones ? I’ve lived in the north over 30 years and you are going to have to do better than one on 30 years to convince me they happen nearly every night.


19 posted on 09/12/2008 3:43:03 PM PDT by Stolly
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To: Stolly

No, not just because of the Churchill was there, but because this was the Town Hall when Oldham was the THE centre of the world’s cotton spinning industry and the most important cotton district in the world. Oldham is not quite the town it used to be, but destroying this is to destroy a symbol of Oldham’s former greatness....


20 posted on 09/12/2008 4:43:18 PM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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