A Century of Stories on Ship Hill

The Empire opened its doors on Monday 15th December 1913 as the Empire Theatre of Varieties, built on a prominent corner site where Ship Hill meets High Street. Designed by Leeds architects Chadwick and Watson - who had already built the Hippodrome in Rotherham, the Empire in Dewsbury, and the Alhambra in Bradford - no expense was spared in its creation.

The white glazed terracotta facade, a grand entrance foyer with a terrazzo mosaic floor, and sweeping marble stairs led guests into an ornate proscenium-arched Italian Renaissance auditorium seating around 1,500 people across three levels: stalls, circle, and gallery, complete with four ornate private boxes.

Constructed at a cost of roughly £40,000 (around £4 million in today's money), the Empire was built by a visionary local partnership: William Hafferty, landlord of the Ring O' Bells pub, and Joe Steeples of The Grapes Hotel in Dalton. From opening night, the venue staged twice-nightly variety performances and was fully equipped to screen films alongside them, making it one of the very first venues in Rotherham custom-built for both stage and screen.

By the time The Amber Lounge closed its doors in 2024, the building had fallen into serious disrepair. Years of neglect under previous owners had stripped away much of the auditorium's original decoration, and the once-grand foyer had been boarded up and forgotten behind later additions.

Rotherham Council had looked at investing in the site themselves but found the sheer scale and cost of the project too prohibitive to take on.

The building's fortunes changed when local business owner Mark McGrail took it on. Mark's family business, SME Environmental Services, had already restored other landmark buildings in Rotherham, including the George Wright Boutique Hotel and the former Post Office on Domine Lane. When the Empire's then-owner, Fred Gould, couldn't find the appetite to continue the project, the two agreed Mark would take over.

What followed was an intensive eighteen-month restoration carried out almost entirely by Mark's own family and staff: his wife Ruth, children Luke and Kirsty, brother-in-law Scott, and a dedicated team of eleven from SME, funded entirely out of their own pocket, with no outside investment or public funding.

The clean-up alone was a massive undertaking: 22 tonnes of rubbish, including decades of old waste, had to be cleared from the site before restoration work could even begin.

As the team stripped back later additions, they began uncovering remarkable pieces of the building's original identity that had been hidden for decades: the exquisite terrazzo mosaic floor, marble entrance steps, and the rare original cantilever beams that created the "Gods" - the theatre's uppermost balcony - using an unusual structural design credited to a local architect.

"We nearly all have a connection to this building, and as we tear back the worn out pieces, we see what once was a great historical building. It stood and entertained all through the world wars, all through the 30s, 40s, 50s, hosting stars from all up and down the country... It changed its name several times, but it quietly stood here."

"My mum and dad didn't have jobs. We were on benefits and brought up quite hard. It breaks my heart to see communities broken, and we see a lot of that at the moment, so when we build something it's not an ego trip, it's about making our communities better."

The Empire reopened its doors in November 2025 with a sold-out charity Northern Soul event, drawing over 700 people back into the building for the first time in years, with legendary DJs Norman Jay MBE and Russ Winstanley behind the decks.

Rotherham Council approved the venue's formal change of use from nightclub to theatre and music venue shortly after, recognising the building's new life as a genuine cultural asset for the town centre. Since then, the Empire has hosted everything from piano house nights to festive concerts, building the foundations of the vibrant calendar it runs today.