King's Cinema

The King’s Hall was on Thorn Street near the junction with Hebrew Road. It adjoined the Reform Club. At the licence hearing on 17th December 1910 it was described as “newly-erected premises behind the Reform Club on Hebrew Road”. It even had a door leading into the Club; and an undertaking was given to the magistrates that the door would not be used for public purposes.

A magistrates’ cinema inspection of February 1921 described the hall as accommodating 650 on the ground floor, for whom there were four exits and “an additional emergency exit”. After the inspection the owners were required to “increase the widths of the passages” (did that mean aisles?) and to space the rows of seats not be less than 2ft 2in apart.

The hall is not listed in the Kinematograph Year Book for 1914. However, newspaper advertising was shared for the Empress Cinema and the King’s Hall, both owned by J. Bradley who advertised the King’s Hall as being on Hebrew Road. KYB 1927 confirms the address as Hebrew Road and Bradley as the proprietor, who by then owned the Empress Cinema, Royal Cinema, Temperance Hall and Tivoli Cinema. In KYB 1929, the owner is F. Barnes and the address is given as Thorn Street.

Advertising in 1930 described the location in rhyme: “Take a car – to Duke Bar – and there U.R".

In KYB 1931 the name has changed to New Kings Cinema with the same owner but with the added remark that films are “Booked at Manchester”. More significantly, the cinema has been converted for sound, using the Edibell system. In October 1931 there was a minor electrical fire in the “false roof” causing damage that was “minor”.

1. Palmer is the owner in KYB 1935 and the sound system is now British Thomson-Houston(BTH), but films are still “Booked at Manchester”. The proscenium width is 21ft and the capacity is 500 (150 down on the 1921 magistrates’ inspection figure). Was BTH a printing error: because in KYB 1936 the system is BTP (British Talking Pictures); also the capacity has dropped to 450, and films are booked at the hall. The KYB 1937 entry is identical.

2. White is the proprietor in KYB 1938, other facts remain the same. The same details are in KYB 1940, 1942, and 1944. In 1945 seating reduces to 427 and the proscenium to 11ft (surely a typo) and bookings are at 183 Manchester Road Burnley. The same details are in KYB 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1954. The 1945 edition of Barretts Directory of Burnley & District lists the “King’s Cinema, Thorn Street”.

Although KYB latterly listed the cinema as the New King’s Cinema, local newspaper advertising was under the name King’s Cinema.

KYB 1957 has “NEW KINGS (BTP), Thorn Street. (Closed). It was re-opened and operated as the King’s Continental Cinema into the early-1960’s.

The area has been comprehensively redeveloped and landscaped (as of 2015). Low-rise flats stand on the approximate site.

Get Movie Tickets & Showtimes

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

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