Victoria Cinema

Located on Eanam Bridge, not far away from the Alexandra Cinema. The Victoria Assembly Rooms was converted to a cinema around 1907. By 1927 it was managed by the Charnley family, and was re-named Charnley’s Pictures. The building had a stage, and the proscenium was 24 feet wide.

Around 1941 it was re-named Victoria Cinema. It was closed suddenly in April 1960, when staff turned up and had difficulty opening doors inside the building. Soon cracks began to appear, and the cinema was closed and shored up. A surveyor found a sink hole beneath the building and Higher Eanam road outside was closed. The building was demolished and the site is now a car park for the factory next door.

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

CSWalczak on February 4, 2011 at 10:58 am

An old picture of Charnley’s Pictures, when it was still known as the Victoria: http://tinyurl.com/6gxvhw2

CSWalczak on February 4, 2011 at 11:26 am

In the B&W picture on this webpage, Charnley’s would be the peaked building on the left hand side: http://www.blackburnnowandthen.co.uk/unknown-20/

HJHill on November 25, 2015 at 3:16 pm

The ‘Overview’ text has got the sequencing of the names wrong. I do not have a complete set of Kinematograph Year Books, but those I have give the following:

KYB 1914 – Victoria Assembly Rooms.

KYB 1927, 29, 31, 38 and 40 – Charnley’s Pictures.

KYB 1942, 44, 47, 54, and 57 – Victoria Cinema.

For the latter two names, the address is Victoria Hall, Eanam Bridge.

As shown in the fire brigade ladder photo, the cinema was labelled ‘Victoria’ when subsidence forced its closure and demolition.