Now I collect old cinemas and in my time have watched films in some of the oldest we have and stood outside many more which have long since gone dark.
But the Palace on Market Street in Stalybridge passed me by, or to be more accurate I passed it on many occasions when we lived in Ashton back in the 1970s but never went in.
To my shame when we went to the cinema it would have been in Manchester, where both of us worked by day and where we were drawn back to at the weekends.
Recently on one of those rare visits out to Stalybridge I clocked the place and was not surprised to see that it had closed and been converted into a night club.
That said it only shut up shop in 2003 which meant it survived longer than many picture houses, pretty much just missing it centenary.
It had opened in July 1913 as the Empire Picture Palace and seated 850 later becoming part of the H.D.Moorhouse chain which operated it until the 1960s after which it was taken over by an independent operator closing finally in 2003.
And I seem to have missed its brief period as a night club which just leaves me to thank Peter for sending me his painting of the building.
At which stage I wish I could say it brought back happy memories which of course are not the case.
But I bet there will be many who remember magical nights at the Palace and perhaps even a few who will own up listening to their parents talking of their times at the old Empire.
If so I would like to hear them and include them in future stories of Stalybridge in the past.
After all Peter also painted quite a few of the other iconic buildings after a visit to Stalybridge in late November.
Painting; Rififi, once the Palace Cinema at Stalybridge, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2431
To my shame when we went to the cinema it would have been in Manchester, where both of us worked by day and where we were drawn back to at the weekends.
Recently on one of those rare visits out to Stalybridge I clocked the place and was not surprised to see that it had closed and been converted into a night club.
That said it only shut up shop in 2003 which meant it survived longer than many picture houses, pretty much just missing it centenary.
It had opened in July 1913 as the Empire Picture Palace and seated 850 later becoming part of the H.D.Moorhouse chain which operated it until the 1960s after which it was taken over by an independent operator closing finally in 2003.
And I seem to have missed its brief period as a night club which just leaves me to thank Peter for sending me his painting of the building.
At which stage I wish I could say it brought back happy memories which of course are not the case.
But I bet there will be many who remember magical nights at the Palace and perhaps even a few who will own up listening to their parents talking of their times at the old Empire.
If so I would like to hear them and include them in future stories of Stalybridge in the past.
After all Peter also painted quite a few of the other iconic buildings after a visit to Stalybridge in late November.
Painting; Rififi, once the Palace Cinema at Stalybridge, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*Cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2431
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