Cannon Hinckley

Built on the site of a former hosiery factory in 1936 to designs by Ernest S. Roberts, a prolific cinema architect in the Birmingham area. G. E. and W. Wincott of Nuneaton were the contractors for the building. It opened as the Danilo Cinema on 26th July 1937 with Ralph Morgan in “The Outer Gate”. The Danilo was one of a chain owned by Mortimer Dent, including those at Brierley Hill, Redditch, Cannock, Longbridge, Stoke-on-Trent and Stourbridge.

The cinema had 1,250 seats, two dressing rooms and a smallish stage, and was the last super-cinema to be built in Hinckley. In 1970 it was re-opened as the Essoldo and in 1972 was bought by Classic Cinemas and so renamed again. In August 1973 it re-opened as a three-screen cinema, later becoming the Cannon, which in turn closed in May 1993, the last functioning cinema in the town. It was subsequently an indoor sports club (c.1999) and is now (2005) disused.

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