Slot World, on the corner of Old Street and Delamere Street, was until a few years ago the Metro Cinema. This was the last of the cinemas in Ashton's town centre.
It opened in 1920 as the Majestic Picture House, with more than 1200 seats. It was renamed the Gaumont in 1946 and the Odeon in 1962. It was bought in 1981 by an independent operator who also ran the Palace in Stalybridge and was renamed the Metro.
It closed as a cinema in 2003 and the large foyer area is now used as an amusement arcade. There are currently proposals to pull the building down and replace it with a small car park.
Cinema is still very much alive in Ashton, however, but in the form of the multi-screen CineWorld on Ashton Moss.
The Metro may have been the last single-screen cinema in Greater Manchester, unless you know differently!
See Google Aerial View of this location.
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There are still independent single-screen cinemas in Heaton Moor and Marple.
ReplyDeleteI used to go there when it was both the Majestic and the Gaumont during 1942 to 1947 - especially on a Sunday first house. My favourite place to sit was in the balcony - it was a lovely place as a cinema in those days.
ReplyDeleteThese were fantastic places and if you spent a bit extra you got to sit in the circle seats, very posh and lush.
ReplyDeleteThis building and many like it is a masterpiece of architecture and style of the period when these picture houses were built.
Modern cinemas with their stadium seating provide todays cinema goers with an unobstructed view of the movie screen. Sadly the old picture houses with their beautiful interiors no longer fit into todays way of seeing films.
It's a hard choice to make but the cost of running such a huge building has made them unsuitable for many tasks. While I love history and historic buildings I cannot relly see how they can remain and it's unfair to ask the ratepayer to pay for their upkeep. So car park it is then.
Not that they are in the same category of buildings and everyone is entitled to their personal opinion, but what a tremendous shame it would have been if all the great cathedrals and other wonderful buildings were now parking lots, and places of worship were the
ReplyDelete"new box-like structures" that are appearing, because the originals were too expensive to support or be adapted for different uses? Surely there are some enterprising developers who could at least turn this lovely old building into something useful and retain its appearance? Just a thought!!
Ex tamesider.
ReplyDeleteShock to see what the odeon has become. Fond memoirs of watching many early 70s movies there. Any girls from Hollins who use to go down Ashton cinema at weekends around 1972 1973
I had a walk round the cinema today with only the light of my phone as company. It was a very scary experience but extremely enjoyable. Perfect for a horror film location!!
ReplyDeleteJohn from Sale
The Tameside Hippodrome on Oldham Road, Ashton-u-Lyne operated as both a theatre and a single-screen cinema until 31 March 2008. It was the first theatre in the country to use a counterweight system to "fly" the 21ft x 35ft screen out of sight above the stage. The speaker system was on wheeled trucks which meant that the format could go from cinema to full 40ft-deep stage (and vice versa) in under 30 seconds.
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