By Keith Bruce
“I went to The Boro the morrow…” So the nonsense rhyme goes. I always thought this was unique to North Shields, but versions exist all over the country from Brigadoon to Pimlico. Most versions start, “I went to the pictures tomorrow…” Our version actually mentions a cinema, so we win.
The Boro stood from 1910 to 1957 in Lower Rudyard Street and was originally a theatre managed by Stan Laurels’ dad. After its closure the building was derelict for a number of years and degenerated into another fine mess. There’s no sign of the building now. Obviously not as Hardy as first thought.
Of course, The Boro wasn’t the only show in town. There were plenty of rivals in Shields and each cinema had it’s own history. One of the more famous ones was The Comedy on Saville Street next door to The Colin Campbell pub. Originally built as The Oddfellows Hall it was refurbished and opened as The Comedy Palace of Varieties in December 1899.
By 1910 it was operating as a cinema called Central Palace but in 1912 it was refurbished again and named Central Kino. In 1945 it was renamed Comedy Theatre of Varieties before it finally became The Comedy Theatre in 1924.
I don’t know why a place called The Comedy kept changing its’ name. It all sounds a bit funny.
The Albion Cinema, on Albion Road, was the youngest of the towns’ picture houses. This was a handsome Art Deco style building that opened on the second of February 1914 and lasted until March 1976. Directly opposite the cinema, on what is now Chalet 86, there used to be a wooden advertising panel with a painting, similar to the famous Kitchener Poster, of a finger pointing across the street. Underneath was the legend ‘The best show in town is there.’
Nobody ever pointed out that it’s rude to point. Neither the advert nor the cinema exist today. So it’s all a bit pointless anyway.
The Rex was an impressive looking cinema which stood on Billy Mill Avenue from 1936 until 1996. Although, the last film was shown in February 1966. After that The Rex succumbed to the bingo craze and it became a case of “Eyes down” instead of “Curtain up”. The site is now occupied by funeral directors instead of the Hollywood sort.
The last man standing, as far as cinemas in North Shields are concerned, is The Princes in Russell Street as the building is still there. It opened as The Princes Theatre in October 1929 but was sold to the Gaumont Group and renamed The Gaumont in 1950, which is how older generations in Shields probably remember it. The Noble Organisation acquired the business in 1975 and it eventually became a bingo hall until it’s number was finally up. Pub chain Wetherspoons were rumoured to be interested in the building but they couldn’t get the key of the door and the idea ended up as “One and a quarter – dead in the water.”
So now there’s nowhere left in town where it is possible to “Fall from the Pit to the Gallery and bust a front bone in your back”.
Which is where I came in.
