Empire, Farnworth’s first cinema started life as tramshed

Electric Empire Cinema, Farnworth, 1949 (Picture: Newsquest)

The Empire Electric Picture House was on Albert Road and opened in 1911 and would become one of five cinemas serving the town during the heyday of cinema in the pre-war years. The others were the Ritz, the Savoy, the Hippodrome and the Palace.

The unusual-looking design can be attributed to the cinema having been converted from a former tramshed. It was rumoured that tramlines were buried under the stalls when the conversion to a cinema took place.

In 1930, it would undergo a refurbishment which included a new state-of-the-art RCA sound system and it became known simply as the Empire Cinema.

This photo is from around 1949 and is possibly one of the last of the cinema as it closed in the early 1950s.

Source – INDIA TV