Cecil Cinema
9B Anlaby Road,
Hull,
HU1 2NR
9B Anlaby Road,
Hull,
HU1 2NR
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The Cecil is the second theater of this name in Hull. The original opened in 1911 on a site on the opposite side of the road to the present Cecil and was called the Theatre De Luxe, being remained Cecil in 1925.
That theater was destroyed during a night of air raids on the 8 May 1941 but the remains were not cleared until 1953.
Work on the new Cecil was begun in April 1955 and it was opened on 28 November 1955 with 1374 seats in the stalls and 678 in the balcony.
At the time of opening it had the largest Cinemascope screen in the Country and the first film shown was ‘The Seven Year Itch’.
There was also a 100-seat restaurant which in 1971 was converted into a cinema seating 137 (Cecil 2).
The following year the main auditorium was spilt into 2 smaller cinemas in the balcony (Cecil 1 & 3 each seating 307) and an entertainment hall in the former stalls which became a bingo casino.
The cinema operation was closed on 26 March 1992 and the cinemas were for sale and/or lease.
Whilst Bingo continues in the former stalls area of this post war
cinema, the former mini cinemas in the circle / cafe area are once more in use – but not unfortunately as cinemas.
“A bar with wide screen satellite television screens for sporting events has opened – I suspect in the former, flat floored cafe area,
and is currently recruiting members.
“I suppose the upside is that at least the building is being used and
maintained!”
Contributed by
Geoffrey Chesshire, Ian Grundy, Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
I remember the Cecil as a single theatre before I left the Hull area to come to Canada as a teenager in 1961. It was a beautiful, modern theatre with a fine restaurant. There was an elevator which went up to the projection room. I recall how spotless the projection room was and the great pride the staff had in putting on a great show.
It was sad for me to read how the Cecil was carved up into three theatres and then closed.
The Cecil was, for a while, a small cinema known as ‘Take Two’. This cinema specialised in films which had left the larger circuits and were a few months old. This will have been around 1994-1995, and didn’t last very long – probably only about a year.
For more information and some great photos of the Cecil projection room go to David Salmon’s website at: www.davesden.fsnet.co.uk/cecil.html
This website brought back some great memories. You will also see that I was not kidding about the spotless floor I mentioned in my earlier post!
Also….does anyone have any photo’s of the Dorchester in Hull? It was a wonderful movie theatre and part of the same chain as the Cecil.
I worked at the Cecil in the three years before it closed in the 90’s. MGM owned the place before the Virgin group bought it and closed it. It was a good place to work and an interesting building. Behind the scenes had remained unchanged since Anna Neagle first opened it. The organ had been removed however but the organ room was still in tact in the bingo section of the building. The fire exits led to long dark corridors that were always being infiltrated by kids sneeking in for a free shows. I understand that this was always the case. The resturant kitchen was fully intact and resembled something out of a Kubrick film – very spooky place!
The old ABC cinema closed about 6-7 years before Cecil. It was located at the mouth of the old bus station again on Ferensway (the main city centre Hull road) I used to attend the dance school aboue the cinema, Calis Wardby I think it was called. A guy was emplioyed by the cinema to sit at the bottom of the stair behind the glass fire door to stop kids from sneeking in. He would be there for hours reading his book. The irony is that the cinema made this guy the best read man in Hull!
The last flim I saw at the ABC was one of the Police Academy films of all things, with my sister. Ah! innocent days!!
PLEASE NOTE:
The Website address mentioned in mjc’s comment above is no longer valid. I recently changed my ISP, and the website now has a new home.
The new URL is:
View link
Kind Regards – Dave Salmon
By April 2009 the upstairs bar, occupying at least part of the cinema area has closed and the upper area is for sale, bingo and other businesses continue on the ground floor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/3485715754/
I have very fond memories of this cinema also spent most of my growin up in cecil,got in for free as my dad worked at abc over the road,i can smell the butterkist popcorn as i write and think about it..