Roxy Cinema

160 Queen's Road,
Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 8ER

Unfavorite 1 person favorited this theater

Additional Info

Firms: Belshaw & Gomersall

Styles: Art Deco

Nearby Theaters

Roxy Cinema

Situated in the Hurst district of Ashton-under-Lyne, the Roxy Cinema opened on 23rd December 1938 with “Three Smart Girls”, starring Deanna Durbin. It was built by Roxy Cinema (Ashton) Ltd. It was a large cinema, but had no balcony; instead, stadium-style seating was on the one level. The proscenium was 38ft wide, and there were two dressing rooms.

The Roxy Cinema was owned by Verona Cinema (Guide Bridge) Ltd. and was run in conjunction with another of the company’s cinemas at Hollinwood, also the Roxy Cinema (see separate Cinema Treasures entry).

After what appears to have been an uneventful life, the Roxy Cinema closed on 29th July 1960 with Ted Ray in “Please Turn Over”.

The building lay empty until June 1961 when it was converted into a bingo club, although, in a nice nod to its former life, the “Roxy” sign was kept illuminated at night until the late-1970’s, when bingo ceased.

After laying disused for a few years, the Palm Beach Manufacturing Company took over.

In January 1991, with the building now owned by B&A Quilting Company Ltd, plans to replace it with a supermarket were first put forward. In May 1992 B&A Quilting announced their intention to sell the building, whereupon the chair of the Hurst Residents' Association suggested it could be put to community use.

However, consent for the redevelopment of the site had already been granted, in March 1992, and the building was eventually demolished in early-1994.

United Norwest Co-operatives Ltd. had received planning permission to build a store with 12,000sq ft of floor space, and a Co-op supermarket duly opened on the site in 1997.

More recently, the store has been operated by Asda.

Contributed by David Simpson

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

dizzydevil
dizzydevil on March 22, 2022 at 6:35 pm

This was local to me where i grew up ..sadly it had closed as a cinema 10 yrs prior to me being born ..BUT i remember it being a bingo hall as my gran used to go and play and remeber the big roxy sign being lit up at night ect! …never got to see the interior as was to young to go in and by the time i was it had already turned into a quilting manufacturer so dont even know if any of the original interiors were still there …I Missed it being demolished as i had moved out the area

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.