Regal Cinema, Oswestry

In the 1930s Oswestry boasted three cinemas. The King's Theatre, later renamed the Granada, then later still the Century Cinema, in New Street, is now a Wilco store. The Public Hall, subsequently renamed the Picturedrome, then the Playhouse, and finally the Plaza, in Oswald Road, has long been demolished.

The Regal Super Cinema opened on 22 May 1933, occupying the corner of Leg Street and English Walls. The architect was Lionel Arthur George Prichard, of Liverpool. The architectural practice is still going strong. The first film shown was the pre-Code (Hollywood censorship) comedy "A Successful Calamity", featuring George Arliss and Mary Astor.

Independently operated, the cinema could seat 1,080 cinema-goers, 744 in the stalls and 336 in the circle. Sydney Bernstein, of Granada Theatres Ltd, took an interest in November 1934, although Granada did not fully own the cinema until February 1955. It closed for improvements, and re-opened on 23 May 1956, now named the Granada Theatre.

The cinema traded as such until 14 June 1975, when it passed into the hands of an independent operator. It reopened on 25 February 1976, once more named the Regal Cinema, but now with 839 seats. In 1985 the cinema was split into two screens, and the capacity was reduced to 522, 261 for each of the screens. A third screen, added in 1987 on the former stage, added another 66 seats.

Later the capacity was reduced once more, to 259 in front of a single screen, the remainder of the space converted to a nightclub. The Regal closed on 16 June 1994, and the building remained vacant until March 2003, when it was gutted. Two floors were inserted and, from spring 2004, the building reopened as a clothing store. It has, since then, housed a variety of clothing and charity shops.

There are plans afoot, in the form of the Regal Project, a local community interest organisation, to purchase the Regal, and the adjoining retail space, 16 Cross Street (photos 3 to 6), and convert the two, combined together, into a multi-use arts and culture facility.