Cinemas In The Suburbs : Birmingham Gardens The building housing the Regal at Birmingham Gardens was licensed as a public hall from 22/7/32 . The foundation stone was laid by the Lady Mayoress of Wallsend. The building had been constructed by members of the local progress association under the supervision of Mr H Flood. Carl and Nell Hampson were the first exhibitors at the Regal and Carl told me that he and Nell had owned the land where the Jesmond Hotel in Bluegum Road now stands and had plans prepared for a large cinema with both circle and stalls to be built on that site. Tooths Brewery made the Hampsons an attractive offer and they sold the land for the Hotel to be constructed. The Hampsons took over the community hall in the 1940s and established the Regal.The hall had to be lined,a projection box needed to be constructed and eventually a ceiling was installed.. Originally the Regal was a 16mm house and as the building was shared by members of other organisations the screen was on the back wall of the stage and the speakers were mounted in the supper room behind the stage with openings in the stage wall. When other activities declined the screen was moved forward. It originally held 200 people. In the mid 60s the cinema was purchased by Mr Bruce Avard who converted it into the format of art house and specialty movies. He also extensively renovated the building into an intimate cinema. The first film he screened was a musical How to Succeed In Business Without Trying.He certainly was a successful showman. Bruce retired on 31/10/06 with the final film screened being The Worlds Fastest Indian After much work by Friends Of The Regal, an organisation of local people who wanted the Regal retained and more importantly re opened to serve the public again, the cinema burst back into life on 21/2/14 after extensive renovations and conversion to Digital. The Ticket box at the Regal came from The Cameo cinema in New Lambton. Congratulations to Jo and her Committee on a job well done and I wish them every success
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 22:16:44 +0000
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