THE historic frontage of the iconic Palais de Danse was listed for sale on an auction site — by mistake.

The owners of the building, the Moorgarth Group, confirmed that the listing had been put up by a contractor who had “jumped the gun”. It has now been removed from the auction site.

The building is currently being prepared for demolition after the group received planning permission to replace it with a a hotel and car park complex.

Chief executive Tim Vaughan said there were no plans in place for any items salvaged from the property.

He added: “What happened is the salvage guy has got a head of himself. There are a number of options for what we want to do with the building which we are still considering. The guy jumped the gun.

“Options could include selling off all of the salvageable parts of the building, selling off some or keeping it and finding a place for it. It is all up in the air at the moment.”

In the listing, H&I Auctioneers and Valuers had advertised a ‘tender sale of stunning reclamation from Bolton Palais de Danse including original facade, original steel frame building and more’ for sale from March 15 to March 31. No other details were provided.

The original facade is hidden behind the IKON red signage and was last glimpsed in the BBC Two show You Make Me Feel Like Dancing when presenter and choreographer Jack Murphy clambered out onto the steel awnings and found the Astoria Palais de-Danse brickwork and sign still in place.

Bolton councillors voted in December in favour of the application to demolish the dilapidated building which has formerly been Cinderella Rockerfella’s, Ritzy’s and latterly nightclub Ikon and Jumping Jacks.

It will be replaced with a 150-bed hotel complete with roof bar and a 400-space car park to serve the nearby Market Place Shopping Centre.

No dates have been scheduled for the start of the demolition work yet.

READ MORE

VIDEO: From the Palais de Danse to Ikon — history of Bolton's famous dance and club venue

PICTURED: Former Ikon and Ritzy brought back to life as Palais de Danse for new BBC programme

Mr Vaughan added: “We have contractors on site making it as safe as we can at the moment.

“We have been working on various schemes following on from gaining planning consent at Christmas and have not formally appointed a demolition contractor yet. Sorting out the details takes a long time.”