Palace Cinema

In Heywood, Lancashire, the Park Picture Palace opened in 1920 in premises that had been a Catholic church (a new church had opened on Hind Hill Street).

In 1923 operator Mr Nolan relinquished the lease. The circumstances behind this were not disclosed until December 1928, when a new lessee, R. Yeoman, applied for a Cinematograph Licence, and it was discovered that the other cinema operators in the town had clubbed together and made contributions to church funds in exchange for the church authorities not allowing this building to be used as a cinema!

However, the church authorities said that this arrangement had now ended, and a new licence was granted. The Palace of Varieties duly re-opened by Mr Yeoman on 25th February 1929.

Two Kalee 8 projectors were installed with, a year or so later, a Western Electric(WE) sound system. Significant building work took place in July 1929 which included the addition of a balcony, which increased the seating capacity to 860 (from what, is not known).

The stage was 15ft deep, the proscenium was 30ft wide and there six dressing rooms.

Further modernisation took place around 1951, followed by the installation of CinemaScope in 1955, when the screen was widened, to 28ft.

The Palace Cinema closed in June 1960 and became the Palace Bingo Club. That closed sometime before the building was demolished in 1977.

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