King's Theatre

In Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, the King’s Hall was a converted Wesleyan Methodist chapel, which had been erected in 1791. Among other uses, it became a drill hall, in 1873, for the Wellingborough Rifle Volunteers, which is when it took on its King’s Hall name.

When a new drill hall opened, the King’s Hall was taken over by W. F. J. Hewitt who opened it as the King’s Palace Picture House on Monday 7th February 1910 with Walturdaw Electric Pictures. The main ‘feature’ (just 10 minutes long), “The Mended Lute”, was supported by other short films and some variety acts, including Kyoto, a Japanese contortionist, Oto “the educated dog” and Miss May Geraldine “refined Canadian dancer”. Seating was in Pit, Stalls and Balcony.

The King’s Palace Picture House had a very short life as a cinema, closing down when Mr Hewitt opened the purpose-built Palace Theatre (see separate Cinema Treasures entry) in October 1911.

In March 1914 it was acquired by Charles Vorley and converted into a billiard hall - after demolition of the stage there was room for seven tables.

In the 1920’s, the building was put up for sale. It was purchased by Edward Mitchell, who re-opened it as the King’s Theatre, with variety presentations.

This use did not last long, and the theatre had fallen into disuse by 1929. Then, in the early morning of 21st September that year, the building caught fire and was gutted.

It was not completely destroyed and, since being rebuilt, it has been used as a car showroom and as retail premises. More recently it has been home to Laser Maze, a “laser tag centre”.

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