Empire Cinema

Here is a more accurate version of this building’s history: The Empire Cinema was built by The Westhoughton Entertainment Company, and opened on ‘Empire Day’ May 24th 1915. It showed only silent films to begin with. The first manager, Jack Watkinson, was killed during WW1 and it was later run by the Clegg family. Edward (Ted) Clegg managed the house, his wife did Box Office and their son, Stanley, operated the shows. In August of 1930, Talking Pictures were introduced, using the Vitaphone Sound-on-Disc system. The premier feature was ‘The Desert Song.’ The main problem was that trams, negotiating the points outside the building, caused the needle to skip on the 33⅓ rpm discs, requiring the sound to be manually resynchronised each time. When optical-sound became available, the Vitaphone system was replaced by a British Thompson Houston Reproducer system. Almost directly following the building closing as a cinema, the main entrance was bricked up and it reopened as The Casino Club. This, then became The Gaiety Theatre Club. The Gaiety’s main claim to fame was the one-week residency of Jayne Mansfield in cabaret. Eventually, the club scene waned and, during the UK’s second, big TV snooker revival, when both Tony Knowles and John Spencer had successful halls in the Bolton area, this ex-cinema found yet another use. Refurbished and rigged out with 15 modern tables, it was a reasonably successful Snooker Club until that fad also faded. The fixtures and fittings were then sold off, and the premises stood empty for several years. The small shops, either side of the facade, continued in business as a pizza/kebab shop and gent’s barber shop, respectively. In 2014 the building was purchased by Hindley based developers, Littler & Associates. It was then demolished and plans submitted for a small housing development. The application was refused. A modified plan was then submitted, which addressed the previous objections, but this application, too, was refused. During most of this time, the shop premises to the immediate right of the site had operated, under various names, as Westhoughton’s main Off Licence, drinks retailer. This closed, due to competition from nearby supermarkets, and then became a pet shop. The pet shop then gave way to a continental style bar; ‘The Beer School.’ This did good business until hit by the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic regulations. Being only a small premises, with little more than standing room, it faced closure for the duration, unless it could come up with a way around the regulations. So in the summer of 2020 the adjacent derelict cinema site was outfitted as a beer garden. With rough tables and benches, it is still used for this purpose during the summer months.

The Robert Shaw pub, operated by the Wetherspoons chain, is not across the road in a converted bank, as stated, but further along Market Street in a converted Co-op supermarket. A certain amount of TV and cinema memorabilia is on display inside. On 9th February 2025, The Robert Shaw pub was visited by the late actor’s son, Ian Shaw, whilst he was in Manchester appearing in a legacy version of ‘Jaws’ at The Lowry Theatre.