The Empire Cinema
A Brief History of The Empire Cinema, Blackburn
By Peter R. Worden © December 1999
Beginnings
The Blackburn Times of Saturday, 26th February 1910 reported that at the Blackburn Licensing Sessions on 23rd February "another application was made by Mr. Backhouse on behalf of Messrs Christopher Hope and Frederick Caton. In this case, said Mr. Backhouse, it was intended to erect a building, costing £1,400 in Aqueduct Road, Ewood, with accommodation for 660 people on the ground floor and 222 in the gallery". This application was granted along with consent for the building of the Star Cinema on Plane Street, Little Harwood and The Peoples' Hall on King Street. This triple permission was also reported in the Northern Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, February 23rd.
Building had begun prematurely, with the putting down of "footings", in 1908. A few months after planning consent had been given, and proper work begun in 1910, financial problems arose. Harry Duckworth, who had the contract for the flagging and slating, was approached to join the enterprise, and become a shareholder in lieu of payment. It was his son, "young" Harry – then aged 10 or 11 years – who persuaded his father to 'go in Pictures'. Duckworth traded as 'H. Duckworth & Son' in nearby St. Aiden's Avenue, Mill Hill. He persuaded a neighbour, Ben Hall, to join the Company as well; at one time he was a local councillor, and worked as part-time doorman at the Empire. (When Harry became Managing Director of the Empire, his brother Jack – who was also an Empire director – took over the running of the building firm; his son subsequently ran it, until it closed in the early 70s Fred Caton was a clogger on nearby Havelock Street. These two men should not be confused with the modern-day Blackburn building firm of Caton and Duckworth; the similarity is coincidental.
Although the building is described on the original Contractors' Board, which still exists, and which was erected on the scaffolding, as the 'New Cinematograph Hall, Ewood' it was soon officially called the Empire Electric Theatre; its patrons however preferred to call it 'The Barn!'
Open for Business!
When it opened, in October 1910, the main entrance was, and remained so until closure, on Aqueduct Road. This was because there was another cobbler 'squatting' in a wooden hut on the triangle of ground abutting the river bridge – so preventing a 'front' entrance. Making 'virtue of necessity', the Projection Box was installed at ground level, at the back of the Stalls.
The downstairs seating was on wooden benches, and there was a small shop at the back, beneath the projection windows, selling sweets and bottle of 'pop'; there was another one on the Balcony corridor. Later, as bigger and brighter pictures became the norm, and before the arrival of sound films, a new Projection Box was constructed at the back of the Balcony. Another reason was that the underside of the front of the Balcony chopped off the top of the picture when projected from the downstairs box!
In the early days, prices were 2d at the front, 4d at the back, and 6d in the Balcony. Children's matinees were priced at 1d downstairs and 2d upstairs; all the children upstairs got a free orange as well!
The Empire was built as a Cine-Variety Theatre, and had a shallow stage, about eight feet deep. During the silent days, in addition to a pianist in front of the stage, backstage there would be a table loaded with a cornucopia of 'effects' implements: coconut shells, motor horn. a tin can filled with nails, rough sandpaper, a wheel-drum with stones in it, thunder-sheet, a pistol for firing blanks etc. which 'young' Harry Duckworth, the son of the MD, would be expected to manipulate in synchrony with the film action. The female pianist, who lived in Anvil Street, would nip out to the nearby Aqueduct public house during the interval; and she used to keep a bottle tucked down her blouse. The result was that whereas 'chase' and 'activity' music was suitably provided for the first half of the show, it was seldom appropriate, but was nevertheless what was provided, for the second half which often featured 'hearts and flowers' dramas!
Turns
During the evening shows, there would frequently be a Variety 'turn'. There was a comedian, Billy Bullen, who also had a predilection for the pub across the road; a clog-dancer who performed on a plate; and a duo of singing sisters. There was Jimmy Ainsworth, a baritone who wrote and performed songs such as 'The Whitehaven Pit Disaster' and 'The Ribble Valley', the management astutely sold copies of these songs at 6d each – good money in those days. Like all good theatres, the Empire had its own chucker-out; in this case his name was Bob Caton. He was the brother of Fred Caton.
'Young' Harry Duckworth recalled that at one time they quite illegally used to share programmes with the Albert Hall in Darwen. The two cinemas would run their programmes sufficiently out-of-sync, to enable this to be done. He would catch the Darwen tram on Bolton Road to do a swap-over of reels, and would be paid 9d every Saturday night for doing two 'round trips'.
The Empire Electric Theatre Ltd. company accounts for the year ending December 31st 1916 gave the building a 'book' value of £2,138 and its equipment was valued at £180; a year later, at the end of 1917, the values were put at £2,076 and £158.
A Near Disaster
By 1932 Jack Duckworth had taken on the job of caretaker at the Empire. One day he noted that the eight-foot wide gate at the rear had 'shrunk'; the boundary wall was collapsing into the river. Historically, the Blackburn Council had between 1882 and 1883 built a new bridge over the River Darwen to replace the former narrow one, which used to lie directly in line with the Empire. The new cast-iron bridge, with splendid balustrades celebrating the Town's chief officials, had been constructed on dry ground on the Infirmary side of the old one, and a new watercourse channel excavated, with retaining walls on either side; the river had then been diverted into the new passage. In 1908 Caton and Hope had - as previously noted- constructed the 'footings' for the new, as yet unapproved, building on the site of the old riverbed. They had done this by creating a box of concrete walls, at least six feet deep (as discovered by the Theatre Trust's excavations in 1981) which they had back-filled with steam engine ash, either from a local cotton mill or, more likely, from the nearby railway coaling yard behind Ewood Park football ground.
So, in 1933 or 1934, Blackburn Corporation was taken to court at Manchester by the Empire Electric Theatre Ltd., to demand action in rebuilding the river wall. The visible distortion of this wall caused Malam Brothers, the Clerk to the Blackburn Magistrates, to close the Balcony. (Malam Brothers was the fifth, and youngest, son of Orlando Brothers who came from Middlesex and in 1845 had been installed Engineer to Blackburn Gasworks. By the time of Malam's birth the family had moved from Strawberry Bank to Meadowhead House in Mill Hill; the family gave its name to Brothers Street. Malam had been a pupil at Blackburn Grammar School, then at college in Sheffield, before becoming a lawyer. In 1891 he had become the Magistrates' Clerk. A significant 'character', he accompanied the Magistrates on their tour of every inn and alehouse in the Borough; even though he "enjoyed a drink" as much as anyone, he had many down-and-out pubs closed.
The judge hearing the case was Mr. Justice Talbot, who was a qualified Civil Engineer. Blackburn Corporation was represented as its Counsel by Sir Harold Derbyshire; who had been brought up in his parents shop on the opposite side of the river, facing the Aqueduct Inn! At one time he had stood as a prospective Parliamentary candidate in the town.
The Town Clerk at the time was Sir Louis Beard, but he was indisposed; his Deputy was Briggs Marsden, whose sister ran the Moorgate Post Office. The wife of Harry Duckworth used to shop there, and was told: "Your husband's throwing good money away, trying to fight the Corporation. He hasn't got the ghost of a chance". But events were to prove otherwise.
Vindication
During the course of the hearing the judge, together with a representative of both parties, put on waders and went into the riverbed to inspect the damage. The fabric of the river wall was so eroded that a stick could be inserted up to 20 inches between stones, where a solid mortar should have been; to prevent further erosion the local building firm of Woof Cronshaw had been on site to erect a coffee-dam two or three feet away from the bulging wall. Justice Talbot found in favour of the Empire's owners, and ordered immediate restoration of the river wall by the Corporation, and imposed costs against the Corporation, and compensation for loss of earnings.
After the hearing was over, the Empire's solicitor, Mr. Haworth – of Carter and Haworth (until recently Carters) – said "Let's go to the Midland for lunch". So about ten of them did so; and got the bill made out to Blackburn Corporation!
When later asked for his estimate of the cost to the Corporation of all of this, Luke Bates of Heys Lane - who was Secretary of the Weaver's Association and had been the town's Mayor in the previous year- conjectured that restoration of the watercourse from the 'new' road bridge to the canal aqueduct was cost £24,000 and costs and restitution of earnings, some £6,000. £30,000 was a great deal of money in those days! (In the late 1980s the same fate befell the Ewood Conservative Club, on the opposite side of the river to the Empire. It too, started to collapse into the river, and had to be demolished.)
The veranda was put up in 1938. A 'lean-to' was put up at the canal end of the building, and about 200 people could be sheltered there, waiting for the Second House. The veranda and 'lean-to' were demolished as being unsafe in 1980.
In 1942 'young' Harry, now in his early 40's, took over the management of the Empire. He said that this was a forced decision of the Kinematograph Renters Society; either he took over, or the cinema would have gone on the 'barred' list. But, as he later recalled, "I'd enough on without that. There I was running Kanox Dog Foods, buying and selling cars, and I'd had an agency for Acdo since Uncle Norman died the previous year. Some days, travelling for Kanox and Acdo, I'd be passing Livesey Branch Road at 4.45 in the morning to go to Whitehaven, Carlisle, and 3.30 at Cleator Moor – and be back to open the Empire at 6.45. My weekend began at 8.00 pm on Sunday night".
Sale
So, in 1946 he decided that the time had come to sell. The 10th May 1946 edition of the Northern Daily Telegraph reported that the Empire had been 'acquired by the Northern Theatre Company Ltd., owners of the Cinema Royal, Blackburn. Mr Joseph Tomlinson of Thornton Cleveleys had been appointed manager, under supervision of Mr. J H Pilkington, manager of the Cinema Royal. The purchasers, whose headquarters is at Halifax, own nine cinemas in the area".
The sale was prescient. With the start-up of the Holme Moss television transmitter in Yorkshire, in good time for the Queen's Coronation in June 1953, the 'writing was on the wall' for the up-to-now vital 'neighbourhood' family-run cinema: well and truly! As time went by, Northern Theatres' properties were absorbed into Harry Buxton's Essoldo Circuit of cinemas. On 29th March 1972 the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reported the sale of the Empire (in tandem with the town-centre Majestic – soon to be re-named the Classic) to Classic Cinemas Ltd. Within eighteen months or so it was closed, but subsequently had two short periods of use as an Asian cinema.
Enter the Theatre Trust
Around Easter 1978 the Community Theatre on Troy Street finally closed its doors as a venue for the larger amateur- mainly musical- productions and occasional professional company visits such as 'Opera For All'. Realising that only 'sell-help' would find a way forward for the future; a group of enthusiasts came together to seek to acquire a suitable building. On 26th January 1979 the Blackburn Theatre Trust received its Certificate of Incorporation as a Company Limited by Guarantee; it was then registered by the Charity Commissioners as a Charity established to provide a theatrical facility, - both amateur and professional- for the people of Blackburn and Darwen. Negotiations with Classic Cinemas' head office at Liverpool had been proceeding throughout 1978, since an initial inspection visit in February. In May 1979, four months after Incorporation of the Theatre Trust, and having been derelict for two and a half years, the Empire was purchased for the sum of £12,000. Before buying, the Trust retained the services of Building Design Partnership of Preston, who provided a comprehensive structural survey and report. This indicated that the building was essentially sound and in remarkably good basic order.
During 1979, possibly catalysed by the Theatre Trusts' purchase of the Empire, The Blackburn Council commissioned an overview of theatrical provision and potential by Ian Mackintosh of Theatre Project Consultants. This was published in March 1980, and recommended that:
a) The Trust be invited to firm up its plans for the building with a budget target of £140,000 at March 1980 prices.
b) The Council offer the Trust a grant on a £1 basis up to a limit of £125,000 against money raised from sources other than the Council.
c) The Council explore the viability of the Empire as a venue for visiting professional productions, both with the Trust and with all interested parties (e.g. North-West Arts).
Within three years, in the region of £60,000 was raised (either as promissory Covenants or as cash) by the initial Directors of the Trust, under the Chairmanship of Peter Worden. However, in spite of the Mackintosh Report, which was supported by the Conservative group, and some Ratepayers' councillors, much antagonism was displayed by the Labour and Liberal Parties (who, when combined, and supported by the 'anti' Ratepayers, held the balance of power on Blackburn Council), and from the Director of Recreation, Mr. Paul Sykes. This, notwithstanding the fact that the whole enterprise had been undertaken only after consultation with the Chief Executive of the Council, especially in light of the recent closure of Community Theatre.
Stalemate
Consequently, it is a matter of regret that, despite rumours perpetrated by the contrary, Blackburn Council never 'took on board' the suggestions made by the consultant Ian Mackintosh, no £1 for £1 grant matching ever took place. Whilst in recent years the Council has demonstrated a more tolerant, indeed benevolent, attitude towards the Trust's aspirations, it has to be clearly stated - for the avoidance of any future misconstruction- that the only 'public' monies which ever flowed in the Trust's direction in those early years was a repayment of £5,173.55 on 23rd August 1980. This was to cover the cost of work done externally on the Building by the Trust as owners, at the Council's behest, as part of the Environmental Clean-Up Programme in the Ewood area - nothing to do with "Theatre"!
Dispirited, over the next couple of years several of the original Directors left the Company. Eventually, having taken much personal animosity from the very people whose agent had encouraged uptake of the enterprise in the first instance, Peter Worden resigned as Chairman in 1982; he was succeeded by Miss Constance Kay, the former Vice-Chair.
The foundation Board left, as its legacy, fully worker-out and costed plans to create a theatre with a single-rake auditorium, retaining the existing balcony sideslips, which would have accommodated approximately 470 comfortably spaced seats. The original, highly decorative, proscenium arch had been carefully dismantled, and would have been re-erected, to join up with the sideslips, to reveal a new stage, 23 feet deep and 30 feet wide, with dressing rooms in a dug out cellar below, and to the side of the building. A new foyer was to have been created in the former rear stalls, and a bar was planned for the space upstairs beneath the auditorium rake.
Now after the passage of twenty years, the Borough Council no longer looks upon the Empire as a rival. As was always emphasised way back in 1979/1980, it will provide a facility complementary to the Borough's own civic entertainment provision. Let us hope that the soon to be re-named Thwaites Theatre will be successful, and a credit to the indomitable perseverance which finally achieves its opening!
Editor's Postscript
To add a little on the very recent years at the Empire, it was briefly renamed 'Red Brick Theatre' and subsequently, following a large injection of cash by Daniel Thwaites brewery, as 'Thwaites Theatre'. It opened for its first performance in October 2004 with its name finally settled as Thwaites Empire Theatre.
Additional fund raising has permitted the construction and opening of a new Balcony (affectionately known as 'the Rogues Gallery'). The first contribution to this was made by Ken Dodd from his taxed income? The balcony was opened to the public at the end of 2005 substantially increasing its seating capacity.
Sources
Taped interview with 'young' Harry Duckworth on 5th November 1981, when aged 81 he was living with Jack Duckworth, his son, who then resided at, and ran, the off-licence at the corner of Granville Road and Harcourt Road. 'Phone call 24th January 1982.
Mrs. Marjorie Brothers, widow of John Brothers (the man who met Charlie Chaplin in the White Bull in November 1931 (see Northern Daily Telegraph 17th November). 'Phone January 1982.
Mrs. Freda Wilcox, Librarian at Lancashire Evening Telegraph. January 1982.
Blackburn Local History Society: Newsletter 35, September 1997 (Report on visit to Mill Hill led by Christine Moore in August 1997.)
And my own files on our activities between February 1978 and my 'departure' in the Summer of 1982. There is much more that could be recounted about the early fund raising with the firm of Richard Maurice, and by Mary Paul; and of the support we received from our patrons...but enough, is enough, for the present.
see also
Transcribed by Shazia Kasim
Article from Blackburn Local History Society Journal 6 2006-2007. Pages 21-25
Published August 2024