Past and present members of a popular East Oxford theatre tearfully signed off the establishment just days before bulldozers move in.

Pegasus Theatre, in Magdalen Road, is set to undergo a multi-million-pound revamp, with only the main auditorium and one wing left intact. Work is due to start on demolishing workshops behind the main theatre on Thursday.

Organisers invited people to come back one last time for a reunion – and more than 100 people packed out the venue to say their goodbyes on Saturday.

Among them was Janet Spence, from Harwell, who first became involved in the theatre in 1964 and is now a member of Platypus Theatre, an adult theatre group based at Pegasus.

Mrs Spence, 59, said: “I actually met some people from back then, which was amazing.

“It was very sad saying goodbye to the old buildings.

“When I walked into the studio area it was completely empty, where it used to be full of costumes and stage props.

“That’s when it hit home that it wasn’t going to be there any more.”

People were invited to write their memories on the walls as they walked around. The writing will be photographed and incorporated into the new building after the workshops have been knocked down.

Mrs Spence, pictured right, wrote ‘Oh my Gad’ on one wall, to mark a Malcolm X sketch performed as part of the production Journeys to Freedom, last year, and drew a caricature of herself on another wall, waving goodbye.

Roz Yuval, nee Thomas, was a member of Oxford Youth Theatre in the 1970s and her nine-year-old daughter, Madeline, joined the group last year.

Mrs Yuval, 49, said: “There were some very mixed feelings – people were dabbing their eyes but they were also laughing.

“I was quite stunned by the emotions: as I was writing I suddenly remembered I had stood in that very place when I was 13.”

She paid tribute to the founder of Pegasus Theatre, Roy Copeman, and wrote ‘Roy Copeman was Here’ in a heart shape on one of the walls.

Mrs Yuval added: “It was a great send-off.”

The theatre has raised up to £7.4m for the revamp – the final grant, which came from a new Government scheme in November, marked the end of a 12-year campaign to update the theatre.