Our Vision

The existing building was built in 1895 as The Queen’s market (accessed from Back Crescent Street) and The Albert Hall (accessed from Victoria Street) and was designed by a renowned architect from the local area.

The market ran from 1895 to 1919, when it became Palladium Cinema. The 1000 seat cinema was in operation until the late 1970’s. 

The front of the building – Albert Hall has had many uses. It was built as a music hall and from the small fragments that have been found in the renovations, this room would have been highly decorated with plaster mouldings and an elaborate gold-leafed patterned ceiling. Unfortunately, due to the condition of the building this was beyond repair. It was said to be used as the Town Hall, before the existing 1930’s building was built. After this, it became a flotation swimming costume manufacturer called New Trend Wear Ltd (apparently the costumes were tested at the end of the stone jetty!). It was then a children’s cinema, an 8mm cinema in the 1960’s and most recently, Crystal T’s nightclub late 70’s to early 2000. A history of the nightclub will be displayed up the original nightclub stairs.

The main body of the building was turned into Concorde squash club in the late 70’s, where there was provision of 5 squash courts, 2 of which were glass backed match courts. These glass backs have been retained within the building to keep this part of its history. The squash club also closed, early 2000’s. The building was then left to deteriorate with the lead being stolen, until we purchased it, saving it from demolition in January 2015.