ABC Lancaster

History

The theatre opened as the Palace Theatre in July 1929. It was designed by J. C. Derham of Derham & Kay Ltd and had 1208 seats. It was originally built as a cinema and in 1931 it was equipped with a Christie 2 Manual 6 ranks organ which was opened by organist George Tootell. The console was located on the right-hand side of the front stalls, in front of the proscenium.

It was taken over by Union Cinemas in 1936 and passed to Associated British Cinemas(ABC) in October 1937. The organ was removed from the building in 1961 and 5 years later the Palace Cinema was re-named to ABC Lancaster on 26th December 1966 after they had applied the “luxury lounge” treatment to the stalls (better seating with more legroom - usually also closing the circle). It now had 854 seats in the stalls and the circle was closed. However this only lasted for eight years before the ABC closed in March 1974. The cinema was converted into Maximes Luxury Discotheque which was still operating in 1994. By 2012, it was a Zone children’s soft play area. In February 2020 plans were approved to demolish the auditorium to build 33 student accommodation flats on the site. The façade is to be retained.

(History nabbed from cinematreasures.org and tweaked ever so slightly)

Main entrance.

The scaffolding ran right past the older sections of the theatre such as the projection booth.

Town Hall.

Shot from the stage end.

An archive photo showing what the theatre was like when operational from a similar position.

Internal scaffolding was set-up towards the rear of the stalls to allow workers to access underneath the circle. The rest of the area was stripped but it bared the original ironwork holding the circle section up.

A view of the auditorium from above and a close up of the intricate details on the walls.

At the back of the circle was a set of doors and hallways. These connected to an office and the upper rooms including the projection booth. More authentic aspects of the theatre were present such as old doors, mirrors, paint and signage.

One of the sets of stairs, showing layers of original paint and newer wallpaper.

Decaying hallway leading to the office.

Office.

A classic "NO SMOKING" sign was positioned where a set of stairs would have once led to the projector room.

Switchgear.

Last but not least the projector room. Either way, it was a nice to see.