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Empire, Thorne Moorends
Cinema Address:
Marshlands Road, Thorne Moorends, DN8 4SB
Period of Thompson Ownership:
1937-1958
How Acquired by Thompson:
Bought
Architect/Design:
Designed by W A Kellett in 1931. 30 feet wide proscenium
Other Info:
The Cinema is in the Moorends district of the small town of Thorne, to the north-east of Doncaster. The Empire Cinema possibly opened in the 1920’s or earlier, and may originally have been named Empire Palace Theatre but certainly a new cinema was built in 1931.
Fate of the Cinema:
Gutted by a fire on 27th February 1952. It was still closed in 1953 and possibly never reopened, but repairs were carried out and it became a church hall. More recently it was demolished and replaced by the Hedgerow Children's Centre.
Site Links:
Frontage late 1930s
Exterior 1930s – Reproduced with the kind permission of Thorne Moorends Town Council
Location Accuracy: Accurate
Information below is taken from The Kinematograph Yearbooks. The Page reference is from the following year’s edition, when information appeared. Additional information is in italics
| Year | Ownership | Population | Seating Capacity | Other cinemas in town | Manager | Shows per day | Changes Weekly | Prices | Variety/ Screen | Sound System | Other cinemas with sound | Kinematograph Year Book reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 5d - 1s | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 662 | ||
| 1938 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 5d - 1s | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 647 | ||
| 1939 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 5d - 1s | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 583 | ||
| 1940 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 6d - 1s2d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 551 | ||
| 1941 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 6d - 1s2d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 549 | ||
| 1942 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s6d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 522 | ||
| 1943 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1045 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s6d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 529 | ||
| 1944 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1022 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s9d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 488 | ||
| 1945 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s9d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 535 | |||
| 1946 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s9d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 372 | |||
| 1947 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 7d - 1s9d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 385 | |||
| 1948 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 10d - 1s 9d | WE | All | 399 | ||||
| 1949 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 1s - 1s 9d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 404 | |||
| 1950 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Continuous | 1s - 1s 10d | Proscenium width 30ft | WE | All | 394 | |||
| 1951 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Closed | WE | All | 377 | |||||
| 1952 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Closed | WE | 376 | ||||||
| 1953 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Closed | WE | 373 | ||||||
| 1952 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | Closed | WE | 354 | ||||||
| 1955 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 5300 | 1 | CinemaScope | WE | 347 | ||||||
| 1956 | Moorends Empire Ltd. | 14462 | 1 | CinemaScope | WE | 346 | ||||||
| 1957 | possibly closed | |||||||||||
| 1958-59 | closed |