The Flicks

[My login is Henrietta]

Yes - love the Regent.

What happened to their plans for a bar area?

I didn't know it wanted one. In view of it's early history, might there be a "temperance" covenant on the building?

[My login is Henrietta]

Yes, a really great cinema.  Almost became a bingo hall, from what I can see on this page From Tearooms to Terminator - The Regent Cinema.

Thanks, SGK. I think I was at college at the time and only remember half the story. And thanks for the link. I knew a bit of the Regent's history but that filled in the gaps.

[BennyBlue]

Yes - love the Regent.

What happened to their plans for a bar area?

[sgk]

Now, a question (which is why this is here not in the "Recommendations" section). I know the Regent closed as a cinema for a short while sometime in the 1960s. Somewhere at the back of my brain I seem to remember hearing that it had a short run as a bingo hall. Have I imagined/made this up, or did it actually happen?

Yes, a really great cinema.  Almost became a bingo hall, from what I can see on this page From Tearooms to Terminator - The Regent Cinema.

Later that same year a new owner applied for planning permission for a change of use to a Bingo Hall. Bingo was now becoming massively popular and hundreds of former cinemas were being snapped up and converted. Marple UDC decided on 10th February 1969 that to grant approval as a Bingo Hall would be "injurious to the amenities of the area" and as a result permission was refused.

[My login is Henrietta]

I went to the pictures on Tuesday for the first time in donkey's years. Saw "Into the Woods" and really recommend it.

It was years since I'd been to the Regent and I'd forgotten what a nice place it was. Comfortable and warm with plenty of leg-room and ...... an interval, with a lady selling ice cream! It knocks the big multi-plexes on the head. Inexpensive, too - where else can you get a night out for £5.50 and the cost of an ice cream? It got a very good write-up in the Guardian a while back.

Now, a question (which is why this is here not in the "Recommendations" section). I know the Regent closed as a cinema for a short while sometime in the 1960s. Somewhere at the back of my brain I seem to remember hearing that it had a short run as a bingo hall. Have I imagined/made this up, or did it actually happen?