THE Kings Cinema was once one of Bishop Auckland’s four town centre cinemas, and it had a very chequered career but, the last time The Northern Echo was invited inside its dereliction, there were still hints of its lost grandeur as a palace of entertainment.
Originally, there was the Kings Hall assembly rooms on the Newgate Street site, but they were converted into a cinema in 1902.
In 1914, owner GW Rudd set about a wholescale conversion and, using local architect Douglas Crawford, created an entertainment complex.
On the ground floor was the entrance to the cinema, complete with cloakrooms, which lead to an arcade of five shops. Stairs took the cinema-goer up to the first floor where there was a gallery lit by the extravagant window overlooking Newgate Street. The gallery led in to the main auditorium and also (somehow) to a ballroom.
Further stairs took visitors up to the third floor balcony to see the films.
Mr Rudd opened Bishop Auckland’s first purpose-built cinema for Christmas 1914 – just.
“The seats had not been delivered on time for the grand opening, so they used planks instead!” says Tom Hutchinson in his 2015 book, Bishop Auckland Past & Present.
When the seats were delivered, the Kings could accommodate 1,300 patrons.
Over the years, the Kings had many refits until in 1947, it was taken over by the Essoldo chain, which also had an interest in the Eden theatre/cinema almost opposite. With the silver screen craze trailing off, one of the venues had to go, and the Kings closed in 1961.
Having been the first purpose-built cinema, it was converted into Bishop’s first supermarket: Broughs opened there in 1966. The supermarket seems to have demolished everything behind the Newgate Street façade and just concentrated on its ground floor self service business which, later, became an auction hall.
The top storey of the façade was reduced, but the first floor gallery was left to rot. When The Northern Echo was invited to have a look upstairs in 2018, pigeons had been in residence for many decades, but there were still signs of how it had looked in its heyday 100 years earlier.
WITH the huge co-op opposite, and countless big name shops and pubs all around, the Kings Cinema complex was at the heart of a thriving street. It had its own café and restaurant, which was one of the places to be seen.
“When my parents got married in December 1938, they held their wedding reception in the King’s Restaurant and I still have some of the telegrams they received,” says John Rusby.
JOHN’S mother worked as a librarian in the Kings Lending Library, which was a private library on the first floor of the shop to the north of the Kings Cinema.
“Reading about the library in Memories 666 brought back memories of a Saturday job I had at SE Taylors,” says Sue Brown. Taylors was on the opposite side of Newgate Street to the library and is now the Butterwick Hospice charity shop.
“It was a small shop which seemed to sell all manner of china, cards of every description, wedding photos and at the back was a small lending library. I remember ladies putting their name down for the latest novels by writers like Catherine Cookson.
“It was run by two sisters, Mrs Harrison and Mrs Weirs. Upstairs was an ancient camera with which Mrs Weirs took passport photos.
“Apart from the camera, the rest of the floor and the one above were crammed, packed with shelves of boxes of china. Surprisingly, the two ladies could locate whatever was needed.”
READ MORE: THE HISTORY BEHIND BISHOP AUCKLAND'S NEW KINGSWAY QUARTER
NEXT to the King’s Lending Library was the Three Bluebells pub, which is about to be restored as part of the Kingsway park project. Running through the old pub is an alleyway that once led to Ted’s Shed, a well remembered junk shop.
“Before Ted's Shed, there was a unit at the Kingsway end of the alleyway which charged 2V accumulator radio batteries,” says Leslie Knott. “In 1947, as an 11-year-old schoolboy, it was my task each Saturday morning to cycle from our home in North End Gardens, South Church, with a discharged battery hanging from the handlebars, to the charging station, and exchange it for a fully charged one at a cost of 6d.
“These batteries were used for the radio, and they usually lasted for seven days.
“Each customer had two batteries with their name stencilled on the glass side of the battery.
“I continued doing this until the house was converted to electricity sometime later.”
READ MORE: REMEMBERING TED'S SHED
BISHOP AUCKLAND co-op’s first store in 1861 was on Belvedere corner. For a corner named for its beautiful view, Belvedere now just looks out onto the traffic lights controlling the junction of South Church Lane and Kingsway – hardly beautiful at all, as Memories 666 said.
“When it was built, there would have been a clear view across the Gaunless Valley up to Durham road and Canny Hill, because the football ground at Kingsway was not established until the late 1880s and St Anne’s school was not built until later,” says Peter Gallagher in Norton. “You might say, therefore, it was once a Canny View.
“Your article mentioned Ferens Mill on the Gaunless. What is known about the bone mill that was further upstream near South Church at the bottom of Bonemill Bank?”
READ NEXT: MARKING THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF BISHOP AUCKLAND CO-OP
AND a question from Jacky Hutchinson: “In your article about tittybottle parks (Memories 672), you mention the remarkable Cradock Villas near the park on Cockton Hill, Bishop Auckland. Do you know if there are any old photographs of any of the houses in Cradock Villas? My neighbour and myself have been looking for some for a while and would love to see them.”
Cradock Villas is a fascinating Victorian development of mini-mansions. Can anyone tell us anything about them, or, better still, provide a picture?
READ MORE: TAKING A TOUR OF THE TITTYBOTTLE PARKS
- If you can add anything to our topics today, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
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