Regent Cinema

Thompsons' owned and operated two of my local cinemas (Darlington was within my catchment but the Regent closed when I was a small boy), namely Shildon Hippodrome (once a GB house) and the very ‘posh’ Durham Palladium. They owned their own ice cream company, ‘Erimus’ (the factory was close to the new Thompsons' cinema, Middlesbrough Majestic on Longlands Road) and I preferred it to the ‘Eldorado’ brand sold at the Essoldos in Shildon and Bishop Auckland……….