Embassy Cinema
88-102 High Street,
Waltham Cross,
EN8 7BX
88-102 High Street,
Waltham Cross,
EN8 7BX
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Built for the Shipman and King circuit and designed by the architectural firm Howis and Belcham with interior decoration by noted cinema interior designers Mollo & Egan. The Embassy Cinema opened on 18th November 1937 with Robert Taylor in “His Affair” and Don Ameche in “Fify Roads to Town, and was a most attractive cinema lit entirely by indirect lighting. It had a small stage and a Christie organ formerly installed at the Court Cinema Berkhamsted. The walls were silver grey and the seats red.
It closed for tripling in 1972 and unfortunately the decoration was entirely concealed. A fourth screen was later added in the former restaurant.
All the cinemas closed on 16th September 1993 and the Embassy Cinema is now de-tripled—and blandly decorated—for its bingo hall use.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Originally, there were large windows in the faience tiling on both sides of the entrance. These contained stills and details of forthcoming attractions, which could be changed from inside the foyer. These windows were still there when I left the area in 1970. Subsequently, the front was retiled, so that it now has an almost prison-like quality, unrelieved by anything apart from the entrance and that looks narrower and less impressive than it was.
I think some of these windows could be accessed from the manager’s office, which led off the foyer on the left. Disconcerting to be sitting in there when he changed the stills – could be seen by passers by!
The sister cinema over the road (Regent) became a bingo hall and was later demolished.
A May 2003 photograph of the former Embassy Cinema:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonez007/3240377745/