In the little visited German city of Oldenburg, a forgotten piece of British cultural heritage is rising from the ashes.

There is nothing particularly remarkable about Oldenburg’s Globe Theatre from the outside. But inside it is a different story: the Globe is the last British armed forces theatre still standing in Germany, and it is perfectly preserved, down to the art deco light fitting and the original wooden seats. 

“As soon as I walked in I was amazed,” says John Goodyear of Birmingham University. “It was like a time capsule back to the fifties. Everything is still there, the decor, even the cinema curtain.”

In the 1950s there were buildings like the Globe across north-western Germany. Tens…