HIPPODROME

Gillbrand Street

Opened: December 1909 Closed: Late 1950s Capacity: 800 (1930). Demolished 1967

The town’s first full-time cinema is fondly remembered for the tail-end of it’s life when it was a dance and bingo hall called The Tudor Ballroom and was the place to be on Saturday nights. As a cinema it shared management with the Empire from the 1920s and became part of the Snape & Ward chain in 1938. It became known as the Tudor because of it’s black and white exterior, and the name stuck.

Dances and live shows were regular events since opening but became the main attractions when the popularity of cinemas declined. By the 50s and 60s it had the latest local pop bands and dancing in to the night. It eventually became Grahams Supermarket until that was knocked down in the 1990s and is now part of Fleet Street car park.