THIS is the first picture of the proposed new nine-screen cinema — which will be built in Bolton’s Market Place shopping centre.

Detailed plans for the multiplex have now been submitted by new owners Moorgarth, which wants to demolish part of the car park to make way for the 1,200-seat complex.

The nine screens will range in size from 270 seats to 80.

Movie-goers will enter the cinema — covering a total area of 2,600 square metres — by a central escalator and new lifts at the heart of the structure.

The cinema has been planned within the current car park but more parking spaces will be built above the multiplex.

From the central foyer, which will run along the south edge of the existing building, there will be views over the roof of the old Market Hall — built in 1855 — to Bolton Town Hall.

Inside the foyer — which will also be accessible to non-ticket holders — there will be ticket booths, pick-up points for customers buying tickets online, food, drink and toilets, as well as a licensed bar and terrace.

According to the plans, there will be “generous space between rows” along with digital projection and surround sound.

The plans are now open to public consultation until December 20 and will to go in front of a planning committee in the New Year.

In the application — submitted in the name of Inception Holdings SARL, care of Moorgarth — London-based agents Wren Architecture and Design says the addition of the cinema will have “very little impact” on the existing volume of the shopping centre and will have no negative impact on the Grade II Listed Market Hall or the Victoria Hall nearby.

The blueprint for the cinema was drawn up at the same time that South African-based Moorgarth negotiated a £24 million deal to buy the Market Place.

A further £15 million will now be spent on the cinema as well as a string of restaurants in the sunken vaulted basement of the historic Market Hall.

The application states that the authentic environment of the brick vaults beneath the Market Hall will create a destination for restaurants and cafes.


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There will also be extensive modernisation, new shop fronts, and refurbished lifts.

About 40 per cent of the complex is currently unoccupied, but Moorgarth boss Tim Vaughan has promised that people will begin to see changes “almost immediately”.

New national, regional and local retailers are also promised in the coming months.