[4] The 2,000 seater theatre opened on 10 December 1900 with the play "Sign of the Cross," performed by William Greet's company, with Edward Vincent as the Prefect and Virginia Buckle as the Christian girl Mercia.

[10] Goldberg tried unsuccessfully to sell the freehold to Salford City Council, in the hope that they might operate the building as a civic theatre and arts centre.

Talks stalled after it was estimated that the cost of modernising the building could be about £80,000, the theatre was running at a loss at the time of Goldberg's death.

[10][11] Councillor Cecil Franks, the chairman, said it was hopeless to try to maintain a "Victorian relic" of this size in its present form.

[12] Goldberg died prior to the North Manchester Amateur Operatic Society's production of "The Quaker Girl", May–June 1971, (music by Lionel Monckton, lyrics by Adrian Ross and Percy Greenbank), the theatre then lay dark.

[13] During its time as a bingo hall in the 1980s the building was severely damaged when its third floor was removed and replaced with a less ornate brick wall.

[14] Palatial Leisure Limited closed down Victoria Bingo Hall in 2008 and have since carried out work on the roof; however, urgent repairs are currently[when?]

[22] In the group were David Dewsnip, a production technician at the University of Salford, who called the meeting, and Allen Christey, an electrical engineer, who was involved in a failed attempt to save the theatre from being turned into a bingo hall in 1971.

[24] However concerns have been raised about how the members of the steering group were selected, such as the non-inclusion of Micky Dacks,[14][25] and whether or not "the community is being used for the benefit of Salford University".

[28] In December 2017 Quays News reported that SVTT was being relaunched with the support of Salford City Council's mayor Paul Dennett and the local MP Graham Stringer.

[29] However, in September 2018 the theatre was put up for auction with a guide price of £350,000[30] which prompted the SVTT to campaign to have the building recognized as an 'asset of community value'.