Empire Cinema

Quebec Street and Crown Street,
Darlington, DL1 1LU

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terry
terry on December 17, 2021 at 4:00 pm

The last programme at the Empire was ‘The League of Gentlemen’ supported by ‘And Women Shall Weep’ (presumably second run to the town’s original Odeon, the former Majestic) as per image uploaded to the Photos section. What excellent value for money the final week’s patrons had!

The Empire’s disposal by CMA (Rank) still left that company with two venues, namely the original Odeon (not the former ABC which sports the name - at the moment, at any rate….) and the Gaumont (former Alhambra). In addition to the aforementioned there remained the ABC Regal (the remodelled Theatre Royal and the town’s largest venue) and the old Scala on Eldon Street bringing the number of survivors to four in total. My town of birth, nearby much smaller Bishop Auckland, still retained its four cinemas at this time and I often wondered why Darlington, in stark contrast, had so many early cinema casualties.