Rex Cinema
Gypsy Lane and Beeston Park Ring Road,
Leeds,
LS11
Gypsy Lane and Beeston Park Ring Road,
Leeds,
LS11
1 person
favorited this theater
The Rex Cinema was at the bottom of Gypsy Lane at Beeston Park Ring Road, in the Beeston district of Leeds. It was designed by A.V. Montague and built by Mathews and Sons. The modern brick façade had a fin tower feature, which had the word ‘CINEMA’ across the top. Inside the auditorium the proscenium was 30 feet wide.
It opened on Monday 13 Feb 1939 with Gracie Fields in “We’re Going to be Rich”. It was operated by West Leeds Amusements Ltd. and it closed on Saturday 28th 1976. The last films to be shown were Walt Disney’s “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and “The Sword in the Stone.
The Rex Cinema was demolished and a housing estate is now on the site.
Contributed by
Tony Newman
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
This was the first cinema i ever went to. My dad use to take me and my brother every year to see the new Disney! It was the cinema that got me really interested in cinemas, yet it is the cinema i know the least about! We just took it for granted that it would always be there. Even after it closed i use to ride down to it on my bike to see if it had reopened yet. I remember parking in the car park round the back and walking round to the front. We would go in get our tickets and some sweets or ice cream and then go upsrairs to the landing with the big glass windows right across the whole landing. Then we would go into the auditorium. This is where i go blank..I know it had a circle because we went upstairs and i think the curtains were Blue? I would really love to know more about this place because the night we passed it and i saw a huge digger sitting inbetween the 2 side walls and all the front was gone was the night that really hit home to me that it was gone and would never be comeing back. I swore to myself at the grand old age of 12 that i would make the most of the cinemas that were left. I went every week sometimes 2-3 times and i loved sitting there just looking round at the buildings but always thinking that one day this will be gone too…..and now they are!!! what a waste and a crying shame.
tonyne, the Leeds Library Service has a number of archive photos on its website of the Rex cinema-and many others in the Leeds area.
The website address is www.leodis.net and the best way to access items you want in particular is to use the “Advanced Search” facility which is linked immediately underneath the heading.
Try not intially to use the variety of connections on the left of the home page or you could be going round and round for ages!
Thanks for that but i have already seen all of those photos. What i would like is photos of the inside or someones memorys of it.
The inside was red – seats, proscenium curtains and carpets. I watched it built from my push chair when we lived in Dewsbury Road. Later I worked in 1954 for A V Montague who had designed the Rex. It was simple in decor and the screen curtains were some sort of small squares a bit like an egg box. The staircase was grand and opened into a lounge area that never to my knowledge was ever furnished.
Grand opening ad posted.