AN ICONIC Darlington building will undergo further construction to create a theatre, bar and live music venue.

The former Majestic cinema is being brought back to its former glory by a devoted team aiming to serve the community in a number of ways.

The art deco building on Bondgate now features soft play facility Magic and Mayhem and will open its doors this weekend as a live music venue.

Construction is currently underway on the upstairs of the historic building to transform it into a 250-seat theatre and two bars, one with an ‘industrial’ roof top terrace.

The team hope to plug the gap left by the closure of Darlington’s Arts Centre by creating a venue accessible to small-scale productions, musicians and actors.

The venue will be restyled to make the most of its unique design, with original features - such as stained glass windows – given pride of place.

David Connor, part of the team revamping the venue, said funding was being sought from the Arts Council in relation to the theatre and its future use.

He said: “The Majestic is a valuable asset to Darlington and especially with the demise of the Arts Centre, we think there is space for a smaller venue for little shows to be put on.

“We’re not trying to challenge places like the Civic – we’ll be somewhere in between, a place for smaller dramatic groups where we can help to promote the arts in the town.”

He added: “Everyone’s working flat out and it’s a marvellous thing because the Majestic cinema was a wonderful, iconic and important building in the town’s history.

We’ll be using some of the things we’ve found during the renovation as features and will give the terrace bar an industrial feel while the other bar will have an art deco style.

“We want to reflect the history of the building and we’ve uncovered some wonderful features, like the 1930s stained glass windows that were painted black.

“The efforts of people moving it along to recapture and restore that sense of art deco are marvellous and it’s looking really good.”

The live music night will launch with a performance from band 1Two3Four on Friday, July 24. Admission is £5 and doors open at 8pm.