Former Scala, later Galaxy Cinema, Long Eaton, Derbyshire (1993); detail
I’ve only once ever visited the former Galaxy Cinema, Long Eaton, in 1993, the very first time I went on a Cinema Theatre Association outing.
What was then the Silverline Bingo Club, Long Eaton, was – to be polite – not splendid. It had had a chequered history as the St James Theatre (opened in 1907), then Vint’s Picturedrome (from 1910), then the Coliseum (from 1916), then the Scala (in 1923).
After a fire in 1934 it was refurbished in an up-to-date Art Deco style. It operated as a cinema until 1964 and then as a bingo club until 1993.
In 1991 a suspended ceiling had been installed from the edge of the balcony to the proscenium, horizontally cutting in half not only the stage aperture but also the elaborate plaster decoration to each side. The effect was faintly claustrophobic.
Its decorative scheme was pale grey and pink, and its lighting bare fluorescent. Outside the Ladies was a sign which read “Beware Paint Still Tacky”.
We shinned up a ladder in the foyer to what looked like a cupboard door but turned out to be the truncated steps to the balcony. There, dimly lit and devoid of seating, slumbered the upper half of the auditorium, a dark, silent, expectant space.
The bingo operation seems to have closed down soon after our visit, and there was a fire during the years that it was dark.
It reopened in 2007 as the tripled Galaxy Cinema, which operated until 2012.
In October 2012 the Derby Evening Telegraph reported that local reports of a possible burglary led the police to discover the place was in use as a “professional” cannabis factory, and they removed some 1,500 thriving plants: http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Huge-cannabis-factory-Long-Eaton-s-Galaxy-cinema/story-17198019-detail/story.html.
The building was sold again in 2014 [http://www.nottinghampost.com/stage-cinema-s-history/story-19821693-detail/story.html] but apparently remained unused until a significant fire in January 2017 probably sealed its fate: http://www.nottinghampost.com/fire-breaks-out-at-former-galaxy-cinema-in-long-eaton/story-30084788-detail/story.html. A young man was quickly arrested on suspicion of arson: http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/long-eaton-galaxy-cinema-fire-being-treated-as-arson/story-30084875-detail/story.html.
I write repeatedly about interesting, potentially valuable buildings that are below the Heritage England radar for listing, but depend for their future on the imagination and business acumen of an owner with vision.
Making money with the Galaxy building was a challenge, not least because Long Eaton is a small market town equidistant between two major cities, Nottingham and Derby, and it was never likely that the building would be put to economic use that would give it a long-term future.
Nevertheless, the images that someone took in 2008 show how much remained of the historic interior [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gpainter/2587069688/sizes/l and https://www.flickr.com/photos/gpainter/2587069678/sizes/l], and it seems a pity to lose it.