New food and shopping market to be built in Greater Manchester town centre

A building in Greater Manchester that was ravaged by a fire two years ago is set to receive a makeover.

A brand new food and shopping market is coming to Oldham town centre on a two-storey site on Yorkshire Street. The building on the corner of St Mary’s Way used to house the Turkish restaurant Istanbul.

But a huge blaze in March 2022 saw four occupants taken to hospital and the restaurant forced to close for a small period of time. Whilst it later reopened some months later, the venue is thought to have closed shortly afterwards and has been vacant since.

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Now the space is due a revamp. Plans were approved by Oldham Council to transform the space into several shopping units including a butcher’s shop, a mini market, a shopping area and a restaurant.

The large commercial space has housed everything from a pub to – most recently – a restaurant called Wok Chef and a furniture store called Sofa Boys. But in new plans drawn up by Oldham businessman Mr Ahmed Zohaib, the unit will now be split into several smaller shops on the ground floor.

Floor plans submitted to Oldham Council show separate entrances for each of the units but shared communal washroom facilities towards the back of the building. Meanwhile upstairs shows eight vacant rooms and a large roof top terrace, though exact details of their planned use is unknown.

Council officers approved the project on Tuesday, agreeing it would “create a greater mixture of commercial uses” for the town centre. Their one condition was the proper disposal of “vapours and odours” from the restaurant.

The new shops will likely make a welcome addition to the high street. There are a number of businesses nearby, including café Cha Cha Chai, Oldham Bargains and takeout restaurant Pizza & Potato Factory.

But there are a significant number of shuttered-up store fronts on Yorkshire Street and its surroundings. The local authority is currently looking into ways to attract more businesses into the town centre, such as the construction of the brand new food market to replace Tommyfield and the development of a ‘Start-Up hub’ for small businesses in the Spindles shopping centre.