Some Liverpool Cinemas

[PhilipG]

......

[Ged]

Something definitely wrong. You expect certain criteria has to be met, you'd think it's position as being one of only 5 oldest facades in the UK should be well enough.

Even though a building is privately owned, it shouldn't matter, just like if they wanted an extension or neon sign putting up, they have to approach the council for permission, likewise they should have to approach the council for something as drastic as changing this frontage or actually demolishing it.

[Sirob]

If nobody can get the council to issue an emergency stop order on the demolition, then at least try to preserve the foundation stones - front of hall at ground level. these record who laid them and the date.

[Ged]

Some memories of Lyton street cinema, lifted off another forum.


Re: barricks in everton road. frank

hi it depends what way you wear walking if you was going towards BRECK ROAD it wason the left just after LYTON STREET .I remember my grandad telling me a story abuot the war hesaid ther use to be a machine gun based on top of the picture house , in lyton street during the blitz just imagin that .

03/07/08 at 03:20:06 IP: 195.93.21.68

Re: barricks in everton road. Audrey O'keefe

Thanks Guys, I remember the Lytton picture house, I use to go every Friday with my mum, I remember the wooden benches, and the chestnut man in the winter, my dad was born in 9 lytton street, and my uncle Louis Hatchard was the coal man he had stables for his horses, and thee was a shop owned by Mrs Tyson........... aaarrrhhh the good old days.

03/08/08 at 16:57:02

[Ross08]

MARCH 2008 - The former Capitol cinema, St. Helens.



Now occupied by the YMCA and used as a fitness centre.



I'd be pleased to hear from anybody with any more information or photographs relating to the Capitol.

Ross - burgregister@googlemail.com

[quincyg]

as it's not Liverpool it isn't in the cinemas book I've got. what road is it on, that may help the Google search.

[quincyg]

YMCA site says it was a squash club which was formerly the Capitol Cinema.

[Ross08]

Former Capitol cinema.
Liscard Village, Wallasey CH45.

MARCH 2008 -



The roof of the Capitol has recently been removed, making me wonder whether demolition may be imminent.
It looks as though the auditorium is in a poor state. It could well be that the former cinema is being re-roofed, or perhaps this main part of the building is to be re-built.

A firm of solicitors occupy the first floor of the 1926 building and the facade is still intact. It would seem that it is just the auditorium that is being worked on just now.
I had heard unoficially that the building - which last ran on bingo almost a decade ago - was to become a snooker hall, but I don't know whether or not this is true. It's also known locally that J.D. Wetherspoon had considered taking up the premises; but they have since opened elsewhere in Liscard.

[Ross08]

16th APRIL 2008 -

I met a lovely couple in Liscard today, we were talking about the Capitol and the apparent demolition that's taking place. The man and his wife had been regular visitors to both the Capitol and the nearby Liscard Electric Palace in Seaview Road.



From the photograph - and that's about as much as I could see today - it certainly looks like the auditorium is going to be completely demolished rather than restored.

[PhilipG]

It might be stating the obvious, but hasn't anybody asked what's happening?
The Capitol had a separate ballroom as well as the cinema.
Presumably it would be possible to demolish both the cinema and the ballroom, and then leave the shops intact (I'm assuming they're still open. If they've closed that would indicate that everything is to be demolished.)

The Capitol in St Helens opened in 1929.

[Ross08]

Yes, the shops are still open - almost all of them in fact.

It would seem that it's just the auditorium and the ballroom (that I'd forgotten about) that are being demolished.

Sad to see what's happening to the Capitol, but as the facade is remaining, I would imagine that a lot of people will remain unaware of what's actually being done.

- Whenever I've visited recently, there have been no workers on site and so I've not been able to find out what's happening.

[Ross08]

Photographs from today. This cinema opened in 1922.



The Cosy closed earlier than a lot of other local cinemas, fifty years ago in fact, in 1958.

[marky]

^Boaler Street: There's a date on this building, scratched into the mortar, high above the left-hand door. From memory, I think it relates to MIL.

[PhilipG]

^Boaler Street: There's a date on this building, scratched into the mortar, high above the left-hand door. From memory, I think it relates to MIL.

Interesting.
MIL have only been there for a couple of years, I think.
It was a warehouse for E R Hughes, the butchers, for years.

BTW, regarding cinema closures.
It was the introduction of ITV in 1955 (plus an Entertainments Tax) that caused mass closures of cinemas, starting in 1956.
After that, more and more cinemas closed every year.
Prior to 1956 it was a rare event if a cinema closed.

[Ross08]

Interesting post Philip. Some good info.

There is in fact a bit of a plaque on the front of the cinema building. It looks like it's been written by hand - as Marky said, scratched into the mortar. It reads 'MIL 2005'. I think somebody's done it as a joke.