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Original Text (Annotation: EPW054982 / 724379)
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Site of the Central Cinema. My photo 12/04/2014
The Central Cinema was originally a showroom for the Blackstone Oil Engine Co. It was stripped out internally and was refitted as a cinema, opening on 20th August 1926 with “Flower of the Night”. The building was destroyed by a fire on 5th March 1937.
Famed London based cinema architect George Coles designed plans for a new Central Cinema on the site. It opened on 28th February 1938 with Henry Fonda in “Wings of the Morning”. Seating was provided for 600 in the stalls and 192 in the circle.
In later years it operated as a part-time bingo club, and screened its last films in January 1989. The building then stood unused.
Since 1994, this charming small town Art-Deco style cinema has been externally preserved, but internally split with a nightclub at upper levels and many small retail units on the ground floor.
Courtesy Ian Grundy
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