The SCALA CINEMA, LONG EATON

words Mervyn Gould / pictures Ian Houseman

 

A surprise news item on BBC's East Midlands Today revealed that this building has been bought by a 22 year old business-man, Asif Sahil, who intends to restore the build-ing to its former glory for use as a 4-screen cinema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built as the St. James' Theatre in 1907, the owner was Lindsey Edwards, and the architect C. Ross. The hall became one of Leon Vint's Picturedromes in 1910, with twice nightly film and variety performances. On the failure of his circuit, it became a theatre again as the Coliseum, but in 1923 was converted to a cinema and re-named Scala. Probably it was then that the rear-projection box was built. Sound came in 1929, with a sound system by Claude Marshall of Nott-ingham.

The building was gutted by fire on 2 December 1934, being re-built to the designs of Nottingham arch-itect H. Hardwick Dawson, reopen-ing on Monday 1 July with Myrna Loy in Strictly Confidential. It had 975 seats, conventional front projection, with B.T.P. sound. Over the war years it was run by D.& G. Cinemas, part of Sam Graham's circuit. The opening CinemaScope film was Cockleshell Heroes on 23 April 1956.

The stage is 20' deep with a prosc. of 30' and four under-stage dressing rooms, and this was used once a year by the local amateur operatic society, up to 1964, when cinema ceased on Sunday 19 July, 1964. Thurland bingo took over, then Star, finally Silverline bingo occupied the hall until June 1993, and a month later fire raged through the building, for the second time in its history, since when it has stood in the state shown in the illustrations.

 

(Left) Audience left front stalls splay wall with remains of orchestra pit-rail on right (above) front balcony below entry vomitory on centre gangway at right (below) Roofless fly-tower, fly-floors, paint-bridge, and projection ports (right) Upstage wall, rear-projection box and bricked-up dock-doors. With thanks to member Terry Simmonds for the loan of his digital camera.