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Report - - ABC / Regal Cinema Grimsby - March 2014 | Theatres and Cinemas | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - ABC / Regal Cinema Grimsby - March 2014

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KronJewels

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Was up in Grimsby for the day so thought I might give this a go.

There's a skatepark in the former stalls/supermarket area, and a couple of the kids there were happy to take me up into the cinema area (one of them was scared of ghosts though!)

So with that in mind, photos aren't great as I'm not a good photographer and I didn't want to keep them from their skating for too long.

Bit of slightly paraphrased history from Cinema Treasures:

Opened on 4th December 1937 as the Regal Cinema, it had an original seating capacity of 1,966, with 1,280 in the stalls and 686 in the circle.

Renamed ABC in 1961. In July 1966, the ABC was modernised and alterations took place. The new ABC occupied the balcony of the original cinema building and had a seating capacity of 1,231 when it re-opened on 18th March 1967. The former stalls seating area was converted into a supermarket and shops. The layout was unusual in that the circle started at the very rear of the stalls. The new cinema was also back to front – the original projection box was now above the proscenium, and became the plenum room.

The cinema was tripled (into 300, 225 and 130 seats respectively) in April 1980, and later went through many name changes including Classic, MGM and Cannon, before eventually becoming Odeon in 2001.

The cinema closed in 2004, and re-opened as the Regal Cinema in August 2009. Sadly, this was a short lived venture, as it was closed at the end of September 2009.

I'm surprised about that with the new cinema being back to front - if this is true, then either the foyer has been moved from one end of the building to the other (seems unlikely) or the original cinema had the proscenium up against the foyer, as currently the auditoria are the right way round with the prosceniums away from the foyer end.

The place is fairly trashed and there's not much interesting left (very few seats, no projectors etc) but worth a look if you're in the area.

One of the two smaller auditoria
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Remains of the large auditorium's proscenium
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Not sure what's going on here...maybe something leftover from the 1966 modifications?
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Compare this photo of the post-1966 cinema with the one below of the second small auditorium, you can see the same ceiling features and where the room has been cut for tripling. For some reason this room has the original ceiling, but the other small one a false ceiling.
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