Regal Cinema

The Regal was featured in the BBC TV programme “Homes Under the Hammer” on 31/01/07, where it was sold at auction for £181,000 to a property developer. His initial idea was to insert two floors in the existing structure to provide retail space, offices and flats. This work was estimated to cost a million pounds. Four months after the auction, the building still stood derelict and as the planners have earmarked the local area as a regeneration zone, a more financially viable alternative may be to demolish and build on the site. A case of watch this space.

I visited this cinema in the mid 1960’s when working for the Star Group. I was a group projectionist and the cinema at that time was called the Regal.

I have no record of this cinema being name Roxy, it was always the New Regal Super Cinema, later Regal Cinema. It was built on the site of the 1910 Bacup Public Hall/Gem Cinema/Kozy Cinema.

When it first became a bingo hall the Regal was re-named New Embassy Bingo and Social Club operated by the Star Cinema circuit. Maybe it was re-named Roxy Bingo by its last operator?

It is amazing how many theatres are named ROXY in imitation of the once famous name of the New York City panjandrum of the movie palace: Samual Lionel Rothapfel = “Roxy”. His namesake was the famous ROXY THEATRE in NYC, which outlasted him by only 25 years when it was demolished in 1960. The whole story is in that landmark book “The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace” by the late Ben M. Hall in 1961. Various editions of it are sometimes available from www.Amazon.com, but only the first edition contains the color plates.