THE TEMP CINEMA in Church Street.




The Temp was the cinema where I saw my very first film, at the age of seven or so. I even remember the film: "Things to Come" featuring our own lad made good, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. It was a real flea-pit of a cinema. After it closed in the early sixties the place remained derelict for some time, but when they pulled down all that area of The Lye for redevelopment (damn their eyes) it turned out that the Trustees of the Temperance Hall still existed and still owned the building. What's more there was a covenant on the land that prevented it being used for a pub or anything of that sort and there was quite a lot of legal hassle before the restrictions could be lifted.

I had a last look round the building a few months before it was demolished, and everything was still there, including the projection equipment in that little box of a room built out over the street. It was all rusted solid. And behind the stage curtains that the cinema screen was hung in front of, there was still an old piano, which I assume was the one they used to accompany the silent films, years ago.



© Darroll Pardoe 1991

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September 3rd 1999