Regal Cinema
Freeman Street,
Grimsby,
DN32 7AP
Freeman Street,
Grimsby,
DN32 7AP
3 people
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Some photos taken in September 2022 :-
REGAL GRIMSBY - foyer
REGAL GRIMSBY - auditorium
REGAL GRIMSBY - foyer
REGAL GRIMSBY - exterior
I dont suppose anyone has any more pictures of this Cinema? The foyers, screens intact etc?
FanaticalAboutOdeon: Your comment actually relates to the former Savoy/Gaumont/Odeon, which has its own page on Cinema Treasures as the Focus Cinema.
In 1968, while based at the Odeon, Harrogate, I was asked to relieve Mr Archer, the manager at Grimsby Odeon (former Savoy), for two days to allow him to take his days off while his assistant manager was on holiday. Compared to my “purpose built” Odeon at Harrogate, the Grimsby Odeon seemed small and rather old fashioned but was well run and very popular. The film showing while I was there was “The Jokers” starring Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed, a somewhat run-of-the-mill ‘60s comedy, nevertheless, the midweek evening performances were pretty full. There was a palpable “family” atmosphere amongst the staff who knew their manager affectionately as Dan – after Dan Archer in the radio serial, “The Archers”. The screen frame was erected in front of the original, rather small, proscenium arch (presumably from the advent of CinemaScope)and, unusually, there had been no attempt to create a new proscenium – hard or soft – and the floor-mounted curtain motor was even partly visible. When the curtains were opening or closing, the sound was quite loud in the auditorium. A lovely, well-tended cinema.
Would jconnolly be a son of the one-time manager?
Savoy Picture House, Victoria Street, Grimsby opened 1925. Later owned by Odeon & Focus. Last film was The Spy Who Loved Me before closure in 1977. Lovely exterior survives. Google McDonald’s Victoria Street Grimsby and click images.
Whitgift Film Theatre, Grimsby open 1972-date. 200 seat auditorium, now digital, embedded in a school.
In April 1980 the triple cinema re-opened with The Empire Strikes Back, American Gigolo & Kramer vs Kramer. The last movie prior to tripling was Airport 80 The Concorde.
The ground floor of the Odeon Victoria Street had been occupied by McDonald’s since 1987.
I have loaded 3 pictures of the r-opening day 1967. which will help with discription
The tripled cinema actually reopened in 1980, not 1975.
I am seriously considering re-opening this up again as a cinema, could anyone give any advice on making it successful, i am not looking at it to make me rich, but obviously it isn’t cheap to run, wages, etc so any pointers would be most beneficial
The cinema is still dark, as of December 2006, with no live plans to revive it.
The new cinema (Meridian Parkway in Cleethorpes) is further away than the editorial suggests – perhaps 15 minutes through urban traffic by car, but over an hour’s walk away.
The latest report in the Cinema Theatre Association ‘Bulletin’– Sept/Oct 2005 quotes from a Grimsby Telegraph article dated 4th August 2005 that; the building has been sold and the new landlord is looking to lease the disused triple cinema. An operator from the area is said to be interested.
Can anybody tell me what happened to the odeon Grimsby after it closed,is it still standing or has it reopened. thanks brian
Built for Associated British Cinemas (ABC), the original seating capacity of the Regal Cinema when it first opened on 4th December 1937 was 1,966 seats (1,280 in the stalls and 686 in the balcony).
When the building was first sub-divided into a supermarket in the former stalls area and an ABC Cinema in the former balcony it had a seating capacity of 1,231 seats.