Tivoli Cinema
St Leonards Road and Main Road,
Northampton,
NN4
St Leonards Road and Main Road,
Northampton,
NN4
1 person
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The Tivoli Cinema opened on 13th July 1935 with Victoria Hopper and John Loder starring in “Lorna Doone”. It was located in the Far Cotton suburb, south of the city of Northampton and was situated on Towcester Road opposite St. Leonards Road.
Operated as an independent it was taken over in 1939 by A. Cohen’s Mayfair Cinemas (Control) and then in 1947 it was operated by the independent Midlands Super Cinemas circuit.
By the late-1950’s it was screening ‘Continental’ art house films. It closed on 27th August 1960 with John Garfield and Jennifer Jones in “We Were Strangers” and Philip Carey in “Return to Warbow”.
It went into use as a furniture warehouse, then in the 1980’s was converted into a tyre and motor repair depot. There was talk about it being re-opened, but nothing came of it. After laying empty for several years it re-opened in October 2005 as a tile warehouse serving the needs of D.I.Y. hardware people. By 2011, it was in use as a sofa store. The adjacent shop and café now function as a diner with an ‘American’ car on the roof.
In April 2022 it was being prepared for demolition to build flats and two retail units on the site. Demolition happened in early-July 2022.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
Arthur Cohen of Mayfair Cinemas was my grandfather. He also founded Midlands Super Cinemas which, I believe, was a chain of eight theatres, one of them in Bow, East London. The cinemas were bought by Oscar Deutsch eventually, I think.
Can any one help me to find out more about my grandfather and the Midland(s) Super Cinemas?
Thank you so much for this information. Never expected such a quick and helpful reply. Maybe it was not Oscar Deutsch but J. Arthur Rank. Anyway, you have provided me with enough facts to do further research and I shall post anything of interest.
It is now a furniture outlet known as ‘SofaKing’, which recently received national press coverage owing to some objections to the advertising phrase, our prices are ‘Sofaking’ cheap. I have no idea what it means!
Unfortunatly this lovely 1930s art deco cinema is due to be demolished to make way for flats.