Kings Cinema

In the small town of Langley Park, to the north west of Durham, the Kings Cinema opened in June 1937 with “Rose Marie” starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. It was designed by architect D. Crawford who was based in Bishop Auckland.

The building was licenced from 3rd June 1937 until February 9th 1953. The first licensees were William and Mary Annie Dunn. Ernest Little licensed it from 1st June 1939 and John Henry Rutherford Siddle from 6th October 1949 to February 1953.

The Kings Cinema is thought to have been called the Zymo Cinema at some point, since at one time the address of Mr Dunn was given as Zymo Cinema, Main Road [Front Street], Langley Park. However, all references since then refer to the Kings, so, if it ever was the Zymo, it soon reverted to Kings Cinema.

A unique event took place on 16th February 1947, when, in a ceremony in the cinema, Frederick Agar was awarded the Daily Herald’s Order of Industrial Heroism.

The cinema went on to entertain a regular audience until 1953 when a serious fire unfortunately closed it down. It stood empty for over two years, but then made a sensational comeback as a beautiful dance hall. Many changes had taken place, including the fitting of a magnificent sprung dance floor and a coffee bar in part of the former cinema balcony.

When the dance hall closed, bingo and wrestling were introduced.

In 1986, Bob Smith bought the Kings Cinema building from Robert Fulton, who had already converted it into a garage. Mr Smith used the front of the property for his offices, and the rest for servicing and garaging for his fleet of coaches. The Bob Smith Travel signage was on the frontage when I visited, in October 2005.

The imposing Kings Cinema was demolished in April 2006, to make way for housing.

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