Coliseum Cinema
11 New Market,
Morpeth,
NE61 1PS
11 New Market,
Morpeth,
NE61 1PS
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: E.J. Hinge Circuit, Noble Organisation, Wallaw Pictures Ltd.
Functions: Bar
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Located in Morpeth, Northumberland. The Coliseum Cinema was opened in 1926. Seating was provided in stalls and circle levels. It had a 26 feet wide proscenium and a 23 feet deep stage. An additional facility was the provision of a café. Initially independently operated, in the 1930’s it was taken over by the Stanley Rogers Circuit Ltd. of Newcastle-upon Tyne.
In the late-1940’s, it was taken over by the E.J. Hinge Circuit. Around 1954, it was taken over by Wallaw Pictures Ltd. It was closed around 1964 and converted into a bingo club.
In 1976 it was taken over by the Noble Organisation, the circle was twinned and it re-opened as a cinema, with bingo still operating in the former stalls. Later, the former stage was bricked-in at the proscenium and was converted into a gym, while the stalls area ceased bingo and was converted into retail use. Part of the foyer was converted into a bar, named The Movies.
The twin screen cinema in the circle closed in 1999, and the circle divide was removed. The space was used as a mixed use cinema and nightclub for a while, but it was closed to films on 20th July 2000. The empty building was purchased by the J.D. Wetherspoon chain of pubs and it reopened as “The Electrical Wizard” on 15th March 2011.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Another view of the theatre after it ceased operations as a cinema can be seen here.
On 15 March 2011, J. D. Wetherspoon opened one of their pubs on the ground floor. “The Electrical Wizard” was named after Dr. Walford Bodie, a Scots-born entertainer, known as ‘The Electrical Wizard of the North’, who was famous for his ‘shocking’ magic tricks and the use of a replica electric chair!
In February 2000, when I visited the Coliseum to see “Inspector Gadget”, the cinema screen was sited the other side of the disco dance floor, viewed over the dance floor from a row of cinema seats. Film shows were held in the early evening, before the disco started! The cinema/disco was at first floor level, and there were no indications of the original cinema auditorium.
My gran starteed working here in 1976 as the assistant manager to charles picken. I remmber spending most of summer of 1980 up in the projection room helping to show films at the age of 8, happy memories. If i remember the projectionist of the time commmitted a robbery of the place a year later lol