ABC Lancaster
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 equipped with a Western Electric(WE) sound system.
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)
I'd had this pinned for some time and never bothered to check it out until it was too late. It was quite surprising to see the speed the demolition team had reduced the stage and stalls area to rubble after only beginning work recently. After a day of checking leads in and around Lancaster with @little_ boy_explores we arrived at ABC after the sun had set and found not much left at face value. We decided it was worth to head in and search for some original features that could have been hidden away from plain sight, and get a closer look in general before the entire site became unrecognisable. As we had hoped, we found some nice parts tucked away which made it worth documenting in the end. We both couldn't help to think what it could have been like if we got to it a little quicker. I guess the only positive thought was that the theatre was previously used as a soft play area, you decide which would have been better... My night time externals came out blurry so on a second visit to Lancaster, I popped back here with @huyt.urb to re-shoot and ended up climbing the conveniently placed scaffolding down one of the alleyways allowing for a couple more externals and a view over Dalton Square.
Main entrance.
The scaffolding ran right past the older sections of the theatre such as the projection booth.
Lancaster Town Hall.
Back to our previous visit now and me and LBE had slipped the heras fence making quite a racket. It was quite strange exploring something shut off to the public yet so open for all to see. The fact the entire rear of the structure was missing meant we had to time light painting as cars and people passed. I'm sure a few passer-by's questioned the strobe like effect illuminating the quiet side street, however, no bother came from our methods. Once past the fence and amongst the rubble you could see how much had gone. The lower areas were of no interest due to this.
Shot from the stage end.
An archive photo showing what the theatre was like when operational from a similar position.
Before heading up we checked for a way into the main lobby. Unfortunately, the security team responsible for the site had locked the only way to the entrance hall. I could just about fit my phone under the door and take a picture to see what remained. The original ceiling was all there and looked very similar to this photo I found...
Internal scaffolding was set-up towards the rear of the stalls to allow workers to access underneath the circle. We laddered up to hopefully find a way into the parts that were blocked off from the main auditorium. To our surprise, some interesting features were left up here. My guess is this was a bar/lobby section for intervals based upon the ornate ceiling sections the workers had left. The rest of the area was stripped but it bared the original ironwork holding the circle section up.
After scrambling around on the wooden walkways we found an opening that took us to the main staircase and up to the circle that was shut years back. The higher you went the better it got. The circle and areas to come hadn't been touched for a long time.
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. Nowadays a wooden ladder took you up one floor, meaning we could see the final rooms.
Switchgear.
Last but not least the projector room. As always we had hoped some lovely projectors remained and were delusional to think so considering the state of the building overall. Either way, it was a nice to see.
That's all, nothing mega but worth the post I think. Thanks for reading!
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 equipped with a Western Electric(WE) sound system.
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)
I'd had this pinned for some time and never bothered to check it out until it was too late. It was quite surprising to see the speed the demolition team had reduced the stage and stalls area to rubble after only beginning work recently. After a day of checking leads in and around Lancaster with @little_ boy_explores we arrived at ABC after the sun had set and found not much left at face value. We decided it was worth to head in and search for some original features that could have been hidden away from plain sight, and get a closer look in general before the entire site became unrecognisable. As we had hoped, we found some nice parts tucked away which made it worth documenting in the end. We both couldn't help to think what it could have been like if we got to it a little quicker. I guess the only positive thought was that the theatre was previously used as a soft play area, you decide which would have been better... My night time externals came out blurry so on a second visit to Lancaster, I popped back here with @huyt.urb to re-shoot and ended up climbing the conveniently placed scaffolding down one of the alleyways allowing for a couple more externals and a view over Dalton Square.
Main entrance.
The scaffolding ran right past the older sections of the theatre such as the projection booth.
Lancaster Town Hall.
Back to our previous visit now and me and LBE had slipped the heras fence making quite a racket. It was quite strange exploring something shut off to the public yet so open for all to see. The fact the entire rear of the structure was missing meant we had to time light painting as cars and people passed. I'm sure a few passer-by's questioned the strobe like effect illuminating the quiet side street, however, no bother came from our methods. Once past the fence and amongst the rubble you could see how much had gone. The lower areas were of no interest due to this.
Shot from the stage end.
An archive photo showing what the theatre was like when operational from a similar position.
Before heading up we checked for a way into the main lobby. Unfortunately, the security team responsible for the site had locked the only way to the entrance hall. I could just about fit my phone under the door and take a picture to see what remained. The original ceiling was all there and looked very similar to this photo I found...
Internal scaffolding was set-up towards the rear of the stalls to allow workers to access underneath the circle. We laddered up to hopefully find a way into the parts that were blocked off from the main auditorium. To our surprise, some interesting features were left up here. My guess is this was a bar/lobby section for intervals based upon the ornate ceiling sections the workers had left. The rest of the area was stripped but it bared the original ironwork holding the circle section up.
After scrambling around on the wooden walkways we found an opening that took us to the main staircase and up to the circle that was shut years back. The higher you went the better it got. The circle and areas to come hadn't been touched for a long time.
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. Nowadays a wooden ladder took you up one floor, meaning we could see the final rooms.
Switchgear.
Last but not least the projector room. As always we had hoped some lovely projectors remained and were delusional to think so considering the state of the building overall. Either way, it was a nice to see.
That's all, nothing mega but worth the post I think. Thanks for reading!
