Our Current Building

The Old Bill is currently situated on Greaves Street in Oldham. The move was made to the new building in 2010 due to the growing poularity of the restaurant. The Old Bill strives to be bigger and better and our new location allowed us to do so. We now have a venue which can hold 60 guests and upwards, we are currently in the development stages of a downstairs lounge bar which will include live entertainment, alcholic beverages as well as soft drinks, tea and a variety of coffee’swith the concept  ‘bean around the world’ which is exclusive to our customers. The new building also has a large area to dine in which can cater for over one hundred diners in a relaxed and authentic italian atmosphere.

The History of Our New Building

The Town House building in Greaves Street, Oldham, was formerly used as a Post Office and is listed as such in trades directories of the 1870’s. According to Worrall’s Trade Directory of 1880, the building was converted into a Free Library and Reading Room by Alfred Butterworth in that year.  The entire cost of the renovation was £3,000.

The directory describes the following: “Accommodation is provided for 100 readers.  The library contains about 200 volumes.  All the daily and weekly papers and periodicals will be supplied.  In the building, rooms are also set apart for the use of the young Men’s Christian Association, the Town mission and the Bible Women’s Mission”.  The contractor for the alterations was Mr George Armitage of Oldham.

In later years the building was used as a ‘Servant’s Registry Office’ and then by the business of Buckley and Gibbs who sold furniture and carpets.

The Old, Old Bill

The Old Bill was established in 1995 when Marco Bissolati and his son Paolo decided to create an authentic, family run family feel restaurant. The origins of the name are a simple one.  The original location of the restaurant was less than a 100 meters from the Oldham police station where many of the officers and sergeants would come in to eat. The tradition still carries on today eventhough we are situated in our new location. The restaurant was ideal at the time. Perfect for catering for our customers however with it’s quick rise in popularity, the size and scale of the building became an issue and thus resulted in the up scale to cater for larger parties, weddings and conferences.