Report - Futurist Theatre, Scarborough Jun.17

[Esoteric Eric]

I saw a video of this being demolished on social media the other day so I thought I'd stick my report up from last year as there weren't many others on here. I had lured my then girlfriend to the seaside on many occasions previous with promises of beach walks and fish 'n' chips, with the ulterior motive of checking the status of the theatre...with no joy.

On a separate coastal road trip we dropped on, the back door was open. There were PIRs and the loudest alarm in North Yorkshire but nobody came to see, it seems the theatres fate had been sealed.

The video online showed the original façade - 'Palladium Picture House' - in Portland stone, being hacked to bits. It may have been an eyesore in its current state but nevertheless a crime against history.

 

[tarkovsky]

I made efforts to get in here on holiday a while back but had no luck. That projector is ace. Didn’t know it had gone, shame... nice pics.

 

[UrbandonedTeam]

wow man i went right past this before i was interested in urbex. that projector is crazy

 

[Bugsuperstar]

Fantastic place. Great report

 

[Esoteric Eric]

wow man i went right past this before i was interested in urbex. that projector is crazy

What is this 'before'? Umbecks is life.

 

[Speed]

Its not quite gone yet is it? Might be good for a mooch around the demo site.

 

[Esoteric Eric]

Its not quite gone yet is it? Might be good for a mooch around the demo site.

No mate I don't think so, they've just started by the looks. I'm not sure if any of the interior was saved, probably seats and projectors in the rubble.

 

[UrbandonedTeam]

What is this 'before'? Umbecks is life.

haha i was 11!

 

[Chris C]

My grandparents lived in Scarborough and when we went to stay with them in the 50s my dad would take me to the Futurist. I recall seeing the Black & White Minstrel Show there but being a wee short-trousered lad the non-PC issue of white men pretending to be black sailed right over my head. Great photos.

 

[HughieD]

Fantastic set Eric, especially so now it is gong/gone...

 

[albino-jay]

Nice one! We failed at here last year when secca was all over it with dogs before demo work started. Ive seen a few pics of it since and all of the seats had been stripped. Cant see too much being left now theyve been at it for a few months now. :-(

 

[Esoteric Eric]

Nice one! We failed at here last year when secca was all over it with dogs before demo work started. Ive seen a few pics of it since and all of the seats had been stripped. Cant see too much being left now theyve been at it for a few months now. :-(

A real shame mate.

 

[Esoteric Eric]

The amount of times I've been to Scarborough on holiday and walked past this place before I looked to get into UEX is madness. I think they're in the process of knocking it down now?

Amazing pictures though!

Yeah mate, as Jay says above they're well on the way with the demo.

 

[Chris C]

What tales this theatre could tell, and I’ve done a little research so indulge me please.
The Beatles played two shows at Scarborough’s Futurist Theatre on December 11, 1963, ten days before I saw them myself at the Gaumont Cinema in Bradford. If what I remember from that night is anything to go by, then it’s not hard to imagine the sheer pandemonium inside the Futurist that December 11. As you look at Esoteric Eric’s photographs of the stage and seating, imagine the scene: the curtains drawing back and 2,400 teenage girls exploding like hand-grenades, screaming their heads off at The Beatles in their matching suits and Cuban-heeled boots; Ringo at the back, his drums flanked by their black and gold Vox amps, Paul on the left pumping his violin bass, shaking his moptop head as he sings, George to his left, grinning behind his outsized Gretsch guitar, and John on the right, his Rickenbacker guitar strapped high on up his chest, squinting into the mayhem, yelling into a microphone to make himself heard: ‘You think you’ve lost your love, well I saw her yesterday’; and the whole theatre a tableau of ear-splitting insanity as delirious fans cry, wave, stamp, jump and climb on their seats to get a better view.
And outside on the street between shows police struggling to hold back crowds such as Scarborough’s forefront had never seen before nor ever would again, and at the end of the second show the four boys, the youngest just 20, and their road manager fleeing from the madness via a back door and into their Daimler Princess limousine to nearby Filey where they spend the night at the Hylands Hotel. And the next day the same again in Nottingham and the next day the same again in Southampton…
It would be nice to think that some of those in the audience that night who might still live in Scarborough, ladies in their seventies now, perhaps even grandmothers of teenage girls themselves, will reach for a Kleenex as the wrecking ball does its dirty work. It can’t erase the memories though: ‘Yea, yeah, yeah.’

 

[Provingdemons]

fantastic pictures