The golden age of cinema in Nuneaton

[dutchman]

The old Scala in Nuneaton's Abbey Street still stands a reminder of the golden age of British cinema.



Now in use as a Shipleys amusement centre, the Scala was one of the town's earliest cinemas.

Opened in May 1915 as the Grand Theatre, it months later changed its name to Scala and showed its first silent film, Rods of Wrath, followed shortly afterwards by its first talkie, Syncopation.

From 1946 until its closure in 1977, the cinema was promoted by Orr Enterprises of Coventry. In its final years there was a concentration on adult-only sex films and horror films.

Over the years, it twice operated as a bingo hall, but last reverted to films in 1971 when its sister cinema, the Palace in Queen's Road, was closed temporarily after being seriously damaged by fire.



The Palace was later demolished to make way for Nuneaton's inner ring road.

Down the road, in Stockingford, there was once another Palace, in Short Street.



The building was typical of early cinemas, with a show facade at the front of a fairly plain hall.

It was owned by a man called Frank Voce who also owned the Regal (Cozy) in Attleborough.

Our archives contain the recollections of a former patron of the cinema who recalled seeing the film King Kong there in the 1930s and sitting next to a woman who had a fur wrap on her lap.

The film was just reaching the exciting part where the heroine (Fay Wray) is caught by King Kong when a piercing scream from the audience shattered the silence of the auditorium

The fur wrap had slipped from the woman's lap and fallen onto the neck of a woman in the row in front, almost frightening the life out of her.

The Stockingford Palace showed its last film in 1958 and the building became an engineering works.

Another Nuneaton picture house of note was the Ritz, in Abbey Street, which opened in 1937 as a luxurious cinema, with a uniformed doorman, plush carpeted interior, a Circle and grand organ.



It was taken over by ABC before becoming the Gala Bingo hall. It closed in January 2008 and still stands empty, with For sale/To Let signs above its once impressive facade.

There was also The Royal in Stratford Street, which stopped showing films in 1949 and became a funeral directors before the building was demolished to make way for the Felix Holt Wetherspoons pub.

Another town centre cinema was The Princes (Tatler), in the Market Place, which closed in 1958 and was turned into a grocery store.

[dutchman]

Not mentioned in the article but pictured on the same page, the Regal cinema in Atherstone:

[StevieG]

There was also the Hippodrome in Bond Gate , Nuneaton

[dutchman]

There was also the Hippodrome in Bond Gate , Nuneaton

Cheers StevieG

The theatre pictured as it was in 1909 and then 1959: