Essoldo Middlesbrough

From 3 years old I went to this Essoldo cinema. I lived across the road at my granny’s house known as Vinny Verrills Fishmongers shop. Cursons the sweet shop was directly across the road from the Theatre, pronunciation ending in “ayter” Cursons made the majority of the myriad of different confections in their own shop. The sweet smell in there was heavenly. A big bag of sweets if you’re flush or a “twist” in a paper cone if you weren’t. Gas lighting in the form of decorative torches lit up the whitewashed corridors inside the Theatre. It had the Stalls below, then the Gallery upstairs and way up top was the “Gods"after climbing up a steep wooden staircase. Some people called the "Gods” the fleapit. It was cheap. Midway through the Saturday morning matinee for kids, a compere mounted the stage and run competitions for small prizes, such as yoyo’s and toy whistles. A mirror reflecting the spotlight on the compere shone a beam of light in the audience that would settle on the lucky kid chosen to come on stage to win a toy. The cowboy flicks with their popular chases in the end sent the whole cinema into deafening crescendo’s of boo’s and ‘rays accompanied by foot-stamping that nearly brought the old place down. Happy Memories.