Going to the "flicks" ...... Ashton-Under-Lyne

 Now they say you should never go back to somewhere you were very happy.  

So apart from brief visits I haven't returned to Ashton-Under-Lyne which I left 46 years ago.

To be fair I was only there for a few years, and my departure had culminated with the end of a relationship, but I always travel with the bottle half full. 

And that means the sun always shone over the foof tops, and we never saw a bad film at the Odeon on Old Street.

I have to say it looks a tad sad today, when Andy snapped the old picture house last week.

And as ever I am indebited to that wonderful site cinemaTREASURE for this short history contributed by Ian Grundy.

It opened in 1922 as the Majestic and "was part of the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres(PCT) circuit, with 1,233 seats in stalls and balcony and a splendid facade faced in white faience tiles on two sides of the building on its prominent town centre corner site of Old Street and Delamere Street, the cinema was a great success.

It had an oak panelled foyer which had beautiful coloured tapestry’s on the walls. 

The interior was in a Georgian style and it was equipped with a pipe organ and a seperate tea room and cafe which were located on the upper floor".*

It passed, with all the other PCT houses to Gaumont British Theatres in 1929, and was renamed the Gaumont.  In 1936 it was was renovatednd after being acquired by the Rank Organisation, was re-named the Odeon in  1962. 

Just 19 years later it was  sold to an independent operator who renamed it the Metro Cinema 

"With capacity now down to 946 seats, the Metro Cinema continued as a single screen operation until the middle of 2003, sometime after a multi-plex had opened in the town. In 2008 (with seats and screen intact) the building was unused except for the long foyer area, linking the front and back elevations of the Metro, which was a Slotworld Amusement Arcade. By 2011, the entire building had been stripped out and stood empty and unused".

Location; Ashton-Under-Lyne

Pictures; Metro Cinema, 2022, from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Metro Cinema, Old Street A-U-L OL67RS, Ian Grundy, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/23553