Vintage signage

Thanks to Pam (a longtime resident of St Ives who knew Regal proprietor George Randall quite well), I've been able to take some photos of the screening times signs that were used in the cinema back in the day. I absolutely adore the craftsmanship that has gone in to these hefty wooden boards; the incredible attention to detail is fantastic. If you wanted to make the cinema experience feel that bit more luxurious, then this was definitely the way to go.

It's interesting to note the second sign is entitled 'Randall Cinema', which suggests either the Regal had another name at some point, or that the sign was originally created for one of George's other cinemas; probably the latter. The explanations of the film rating categories suggest it was made in the 1950s or 60s.

Memories: Steve

Steve emailed me this week with his memories of the Regal Cinema:

I used to live in Needingworth from 1979, when I entered the first year of St Ivo School, till I moved away from home. 

I didn't use the Regal too much (going to the pictures used to be a bit of a rare treat in our house) but we definitely went to see Grease there in the summer of 1979. As you can see from your picture, the seats were rather old cast-iron stuff - OK for kids and small adults, but I think bigger people would have found it a tad uncomfortable compared with the seats you tend to get in more modern places. 

The Ivo School had a period during the early 1980s where they would do an annual outing to the cinema for the pupils. This was done individually for each year of the school rather than all the pupils at once! Each year would get a different film and we would pay something like 10p and all traipse down there from the school. As 3rd years, we were a bit miffed that 'our' film was Paper Moon, which had been on TV about a dozen times, whereas the 4th (or 5th?) years were given Battlestar Galactica, which seemed to us way cooler. 

I remember when the cinema shut, a newspaper (probably the Town Crier) said that the owner had been running it as a sort of hobby for the last few years and it hadn't been making any real money. 

It was also a snooker club for a while after it shut (with a frontage to the street that was far less modified from the original than the nightclub is now).