Grand Opera House, York

The Grand Opera House stands on the corner of Clifford Street and Cumberland Street in York and is a Grade II listed building. Its frontage was built as a corn exchange, designed by George Alfred Dean in the Italianate style and opened on 28 October 1868; William Peacock later joined it to a warehouse behind, to a design by John Priestley Briggs, and it opened as the Grand Theatre and Opera House with a pantomime on 20 January 1902. It became the Empire Theatre in 1916, closed in 1956 and spent years as a bingo hall and roller skating rink before a £4 million restoration reopened it in 1989. It has belonged to the Ambassador Theatre Group since November 2009 and hosts touring plays, musicals, opera, ballet and comedy.