Purley's Golden Age of Cinema
During the golden age of cinema, while Croydon town centre was generously-endowed with theatres, there was a distinct lack in the outer areas of the borough.
The Regal beat a number of contenders to become Purley's first cinema in 1934. It was a private venture, which was located out of the town centre and was part of an entertainment complex boasting an ice rink.
It seated more than 1,100 people and more than 470 in the circle.
The Regal Cinema. Purley c1936
The theatre's first film was the Mickey Mouse cartoon Building a Building, preceding the feature films I Live With You and Her First Mate.
Within a few months, the Regal was leased by ABC, though its name never changed, unlike other theatres snapped up by the company.
It soon ran a full six-day programme. It was the cinema's access to a steady stream of popular films that ensured its survival for 40 years.
ABC purchased the freehold of the cinema and the two shops at the front of the building in June 1969 for £100,000. But by 1974 the Regal and Purley's other cinema the Astoria were both under the control of EMI, which had taken over the ABC.
The organisation decided to convert one into a multiscreen cinema and closed the Regal after a week's run of Don't Look Now, which finished on 16th February 1974.
The long-narrow pathway which links the Whitgift Centre with North End was once the distinctive entrance to the Empire cinema.
The Empire opened in 1906 and films were shown during its early years, but it was essentially a music hall until November 1930.
There were clearly too many picture houses in central Croydon, as its operators Twentieth Century Cinemas, independent from 20th Century Fox, decided to return the Empire to a variety theatre from 5th September 1938.
Films were only shown on Sundays, together with a stage show. Later on, the entrepreneurial Hyams brothers, responsible for the largest cinema in the country, bought the building in February 1946.
Live shows continued until 1953 when Phil Hyams declared that the Empire had lost £11,000 over two years and the
show Soldiers in Skirts was to be the last live presentation.
The building underwent a week of refurbishment before reopening as the Eros cinema, a sister to the one established at Bushey Green.
Its programming became very eclectic, allowing X-rated films as well as U certificates during holiday periods.
Rumours of closure were denied in February 1959 but the Eros was acquired by a Mitcham development company, which closed it a week after the Davis Theatre shut on 30th May 1959.
When ABC applied for a licence to open the Rex cinema in London Road, Norbury, it faced protests from another cinema opposite the site, which contested the application on the grounds that there was barely enough demand for its theatre, let alone two.
However, the council declined to protect the established cinema and work started on the Rex in 1936. The Rex opened at the unusual time of 2pm on a Monday and was the first of 19 new outlets opened by the ABC circuit in 1937.
The first week's attraction was the Astaire Rodgers musical Swing Tune and admission prices were sixpence and one shilling for the stalls, one and sixpence, and two shillings for the circle.
One non cinematic event that attracted a full house was in November 1937 when every seat was taken for a peace meeting addressed by politician and pacifist George Lansbury.
For the hundreds unable to get inside, a second meeting was held in the Rex's car park."
Cinema audiences dwindled in the 1940s and 1950s and the Rex finally closed on 17th February 1962, after, a week's run of the musical Fanny.
It was used by ABC as a bingo hall during the 1960s but the building was demolished and the Radnor House office block now occupies part of the site.