Visited with @Seffy
History:
The Palace opened in December 1926 and was built and owned by Captain Adrian Noel Kendal after two other schemes planned for the same plot failed. The first film shown was The Merry Widow starring Mae Murray and John Gilbert. It was sold to Odeon in 1935, who rebranded it in 1937. The Andover Odeon was one of a batch of 69 cinemas sold off by the Rank Organisation on 3rd December 1967 to Classic Cinemas chain, and it was immediately renamed Classic Cinema. In March 1971 a 114-seat cinema was constructed on the left side of the stalls seating area. It was named Tatler Cinema Club and screen 16mm uncensored sex films. The rest of the auditorium became a bingo club. From 1st August 1971 the programming in the cinema section was changed to screening Tatler Cinema Club programmes during the first part of the week and general film releases at the end of the week in what was named Classic Cinema. Film shows continued until 13th June 1975. It was restored as a single unit as the Mecca Bingo Club. It was announced that the Mecca Bingo Club would close on 14th August 2022.
The Explore:
Me and Seffy were actually intending to look at somewhere else nearby but I noticed this cinema whilst having a look at Plan B's. I couldn't see any mention of it on the forum, but then it's gone by several different names over the years. We stopped here first to scope it out and quickly worked out potential ways in. Off we went to Plan A, but it was getting dark so didn't bother in the end. Checked out the the local ROC post , as you do, and ended up back in Andover.
The cinema didn't disappoint, but also didn't completely wow. The projector room was nice as was the upper balcony. But the foyer resembled a building site and didn't warrant more than one photo. It really wasn't much. And having been a mecca bingo for so long, the rest was rather stripped/modernised which is a shame. Sadly the old paint scheme hasn't survived either; it looked much better even back in 2015. Still, it was a enjoyable explore nonetheless.
On with the photos:
Thanks for looking!
Standard stuff i guess. The GB seat ends are great (Gaumont British i believe) I cant quite work out why they are there tho as it was bought by ODEON before the two merged.. Unless Gaumont owned it before hand or maybe Odeon/Gaumont dug them out of a cupboard somwhere when they were doing a refit after it changed hands. Anyway bit of a fail not doing it a year ago really. I didn't realise it had been sold.
