Ayr | Barry Island | Bognor Regis | Clacton | Filey | Minehead | Mosney | Pwllheli | Skegness
Photographs and description © Keith Franklin
One unusual thing about this building is that the old upstairs Empire cinema (also used as a children's theatre) does not seem to have ever been used after Butlins left! You used to be able to sit outside the cinema, waiting to go in, and see the outdoor funpool. But the cinema front entrance and the original twin Butlins staircases up to here had been boarded off completely by a new wooden wall (now smashed through!). You wouldn't have even guessed there was a cinema here! Instead there was a narrow corridor by the upstairs window overlooking the pool with new blue metal spiral staircases installed up to here as another means of access to CoCos (next to this cinema).
It is pitch black but the stage is still here with the 'baby crying in chalet' bulb-box and smashed front on the floor beneath. You can see where the large speakers were removed from either side of the stage as well. The spartan toilet and dressing rooms at the back of the stage still had a Butlins 'Push Button Click' poster inside - unmoved from mid 1980s when Butlins pulled out!!! The billowing yellow ceiling fabric is torn and fluttering in the cinema. However, what is really strange is that the whole wooden sloping floor with cinema seats has been totally removed. The cinema is totally empty. Where the missing floor sloped down the walls is visible by the paint - red above. Obviously the main entrances at the back of the cinema are now a sheer drop and so a make-shift wooden fence has been put across each. The side stair-cases down from the cinema are still in the corridor (which has the white wood lattice ceiling) to the right of the cinema. There are also rooms (some of which seem to have been used as offices - judging by the paperwork everywhere?) leading off from this cinema. Many of these rooms seem to have been used as stores - filled with loads of decaying red Empire cinema chairs and stage props all stacked up, as well as various posters of children's magic acts. The roof is leaking badly here. Everything is smashed up and there is lots of graffiti and evidence of some items being burned.
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