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For drunks to wee on!
This thread gives me a good excuse to plug my appeal (at the bottom)
http://filmdope.com/forums/br...losures-3.html
As I travel in and around the country I�m fascinated to see what�s happed to some of the old cinemas. If not bingo halls or indoor markets they are converted into luxury flats hostels or restaurants etc. I�ve started to take pictures of some of them and researching as much as I can about the buildings. I have a friend who is going to design a website for me and hopefully I will have this with his help up and running next year some time if all goes well? It really is amazing what some of them are used for now. If you have any old cinemas near you it would be nice to let us all hear how it�s changed and any fond memories you have? (not what you got up to in the back row)
Sadly so many have been demolished.
P.S Don�t pm me with the story, lets share it with the forum.
For drunks to wee on!
This thread gives me a good excuse to plug my appeal (at the bottom)
http://filmdope.com/forums/br...losures-3.html
Mine is now home to a local amateur dramatic society.
There are still weekly film shows run by the new owners
Mine's now a block of flats in the middle of the High Street - no chance of turning THAT back into a cinema!
When I was a kid we had several cinemas ....
Gaumont - bingo hall
Odeon - flattened andreplaced by a car park (they did build a new one nearby)
Theatre Royal - now back to being a theatre
Regent - bingo hall
Regal - flattened and replaced by a department store
Guildhall - flattened and replaced by a car park
the cinema here is now a bingo hall! it was a bit shoddy in it's '80s heyday and had a rip in the screen which looked like a seagull but i still enjoyed going as a kid-i think the new cinema chains have failed to re-create going to the cinema as an event by trying to make the experience too comfortable and too much like sitting at home on an armchair with popcorn! gone for good i fear!
Sadly now a bedding/furniture store.
One of them, the Odeon / Scala used to have a Conacher organ that rose up out the floor. That is now mostly a bingo hall.
The other, which was a Classic, later Cannon in my lifetime. Most of it is part of a nightclub.
I have three cinemas within walking distance...
We used to have loads cinemas in Leicester.
One is a conference venue, another is a shopping arcade:
Of the others, two have long since been demolished and a couple of the outlying ones have become a carpet warehouse and a MacDonalds respectively. Another became a bingo hall and then a Bollywood cinema, and is now undergoing a transformation into another conference venue.
One is a clothing factory and yet another is now a classy Sari shop.
Felixstowe kept it's cinema as have most of the small towns in Suffolk, the planners are very conservative. In the larger towns the 1920's and 30's models have disappeared but multiscreens are more than adequate. Woodbridge combined their cinema with a restaurant and amdram base.
The one down the street from me is quite empty, unusued, just taking up space. It was called the Catalina Cinema, and occasionally showed a foreign or independent film.
My favorite conversion story is the Michigan Theatre in Detroit. It's now a parking lot and your car can enjoy the lovely view of the old ceiling which is still intact:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Theater_(Detroit)
name='EllyMack']We used to have loads cinemas in Leicester.
One is a conference venue, another is a shopping arcade:
Of the others, two have long since been demolished and a couple of the outlying ones have become a carpet warehouse and a MacDonalds respectively. Another became a bingo hall and then a Bollywood cinema, and is now undergoing a transformation into another conference venue.
One is a clothing factory and yet another is now a classy Sari shop.
Very nice picture EllyMack. Many thanks for sharing it with us. thanks everyone
Those I knew that have closed all became nightclubs or bingo halls. Except for one.
After staying unused for years it eventually became a Kwiksave supermarket
Excellent site, they have a UK wide link as well, some wonderful old photographs
Enjoy!
KBM
Scotland's Cinemas and Theatres
hi
check out a new book called Suburban London Cinemas.
Available on Amazon.
Odeon, Blackpool, as was.
Today, Funny Girls transvestite showbar
This is one of my favourite sites.
UK Urban Exploration Forums
Urban Exploration. Highly illegal, but fascinating. Check out the "Leisure Sites" section for photo's inside old derelict cinemas, theatres and nightclubs.
name='Dandy Forsdyke']
Odeon, Blackpool, as was.
Today, Funny Girls transvestite showbar
Lovely shot Danny. Many thanks..
I remember going there with my wife a few years back to see Bruce Willis in Armageddon. (my wife thinks he�s hot!) Anyway were ushered to our seats in what was a very small screening room. I turned around and politely asked the young lad who showed us to our seat, excuse me but would you happen to know if this theatre has 6.1 surround sound? He replied �ehhhhh!? I�m not too sure, but it�s F****** loud��
I live right behind this former cinema in a suburb of Bradford. This is what it looked like in the old days...
Its final screening was on Saturday 4th April 1959 with a double bill of Annie Get Your Gun and Laurel and Hardy's Nothing but Trouble, both of which films were getting on a bit even then.
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