Regal Theatre
112 Station Road,
Ashington,
NE63 8HE
112 Station Road,
Ashington,
NE63 8HE
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I think the reason it was eventually demolished was because of break ins- not long before they started demolishing at christmas 1989, i passed one day and the front doors were open as there had been a break in. about ten years ago some work was going on upstairs at the Wallaw and someone posted online some pictures, the projection room there is still completely intact !
i Remember Dennis well, i probably met you as my gran was the manager margaret brown in about 1978 before going to the wallaw. I remember getting to see the old dressing rooms just before the regal closed in 79. Always regretted only getting into the projection room once.I just remember the beautiful lighting inside. She was at the coliseum too, they were state of the art there, they had one projector per cinema and spooled all the film parts onto one big reel.
Dennis was the name of the last Chief Projectionist. We opperated 2 projectors with peerless arc lamps and 1 stills lamp. I was the apprentice in 1976. We both moved to operate the projectors an the Wallaw after the Regal closed. The projectionist room has two windows to light the winding room which you can see on the photo at the top left. Dennis took Fridays off. I would play my own records in the auditorium of that day. Your welcome. :)
Looking at the OS map for 1981 and Google Earth suggests to me that the Station Court residential care home is not on the site of the Regal as stated in the Overview description. The Regal stood just to the west of St Aidan’s R.C. church (site now occupied by 4 modern terraced houses) but Station Court is a good bit further along to the west and stands on a site formerly occupied by Station Road Methodist Church and some adjoining terraced premises fronting Station Road.
The Regal used to host Sunday night concerts and in the seventies it did several rock/pop concerts including Slade and Whitesnake. The Regal when rebuilt in 1939 by architects Percy L Brown Harding, retained the original Miners Hall auditorium and stage exterior walls with a rebuilt 1930s frontage and interior. The rebuilt auditorium was very similar to the Ritz at Wallsend which was also built in 1939 by Percy L Brown Harding. When the Regal was being demolished you could see the top of the original Miners Hall proscenium and plasterwork. As far as I am aware the Regal did not have an organ, although the Miners Hall may have had one.