Spindles Market and Event Space is part of the wider transformation of the Spindles Shopping Centre in Oldham. Working with Oldham Council, we repurposed underused retail space to create a contemporary market, flexible events venue and publicly accessible heritage archive - bringing together commerce, culture and community activity under one roof.

Working with the Council and it’s advisors, we helped advise on the initial acquisition and redevelopment plans for Oldham Spindles – an under-performing shopping centre in the heart of Oldham. Following its successful acquisition, we were retained to oversee the transformation of the 450,000 sqft centre – this included supporting a successful Towns Fund application.

Oldham Council wanted to repurpose underused space within the Spindles Shopping Centre and bring several ageing civic assets together in a more sustainable and accessible town centre location.

The council’s existing Tommyfield Market and Queen Elizabeth Hall were becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and no longer met the needs of modern traders, visitors and event organisers. At the same time, vacant retail space within Spindles presented an opportunity to rethink how the building could support the town centre.

Our brief was to create a contemporary market for local independent traders, a flexible events venue and a new home for Oldham’s heritage archives, while helping to increase footfall, support local businesses and strengthen connections across the wider town centre and ensure an offer from morning to night.

As a prominent, publicly owned site, our proposals followed extensive stakeholder engagement with Council groups, residents, market traders, retailers and other local stakeholders. This included participation in “The Big Oldham Conversation,” an online and in-person consultation event, gathering feedback from over 600 contributors.