New Empire Theatre

Built as a theatre on the site of the Public Hall, which had become the Alexandra Theatre in 1891, and which was destroyed by fire in 1896. The new theatre had a capacity of 2000 which included 1000 in the gallery and 500 in the pit. The interior was described as ‘semi-circular’ with dress and upper circles and six stage boxes, all decorated in light blue, salmon pink and gold with plum coloured upholstery. The act drop represented ‘the Pier Approach and Hill as it will be when the Pier Hill Scheme shall have been carried out’. In 1920, it was converted to the Rivoli cinema. This was two tier with boxes, but made no use of the excavated area formerly used for understage, orchestra pit, stalls etc. Any possible stage use disappeared with further modernisation and twinning in 1962. The only parts of the original building, apart from external walls and exits, are stairs to stalls and pit stalls and original signs, and possibly some other areas at the lowest level, under the 1920 cinema, now a basement area. In 1998 the cinema closed and stood empty. At the end of the year, it was acquired for use by two local amateur theatre groups, one in the former stalls area, and one in the balcony area. Films were screened occasionally. This arrangement came to an end in 2008 and the theatre went dark. The building was subsequently put up for sale. An arson attack in July 2015 resulted in the roof collapsing and the building suffering extensive damage. The first floor auditorium was largely destroyed, including the upper circle which was part of the original theatre. The building was demolished in 2017.