MULTI-million pound restoration work is progressing at a North-East theatre as demolition work knocks down its old dressing room block.

Stockton's Globe venue is being renovated with a £4.5m grant and Stockton Borough Council funding.

A six storey extension is being built and Councillor Nigel Cooke, cabinet member for regeneration and housing, said: “The Globe’s dressing rooms were very small, basic and unlike the main auditorium and entrance, they were not art-deco.

“The new, fully accessible extension has been sympathetically designed in keeping with the existing fly tower and will include an increased number of dressing rooms, a green room, improved access to the fly tower grid as well as full high-tech production and security facilities.