It was a pleasant surprise...

... yesterday morning, when someone walked into Harrogate Library and asked if the photographic archive would like to have some photographs of the town's Regal Cinema. Fortunately the gift was accepted.

The gift included several high quality images of the Regal Cinema, all taken professionally, probably around the cinema's opening in September 1937. This splendid exterior shot bears the stamp of Stewart Bale, Commercial Photographer, 13 Union Court Liverpool 2. 

The advertised film 'God's Country and the The Woman' was released earlier in 1937- I am pretty sure the plot will have been quite different from that of the 2017 release 'God's Own Country'!

The Regal had 1646 seats (see extra for a shot of the beautiful interior - this time by Chas. A.H. Pickard & son, 9a Kirkgate, Leeds). I've also included an exterior shot of the whole block by Pickard. This can be compared with my earlier Then & Now blip..

In 1973, the auditorium, by then part of the ABC chain was split into two cinemas and a pub. It all closed down in 1983 and was swiftly demolished for development work on 26 Feb 1983.