Hi John You say the Plaza was a Jacksons Supermarket, it wasnât (Wm Jacksons supermarket was further up Hessle Square just past the garage next to Plaza). It was actually run by the now defunct Gallons Grocers of Leeds or WB Grocers as it became latterly. I worked there for many years starting as a shop assistant, working my way up to become relief manager at all the Gallons and Vernons shops in Hull, Howden, Goole & Ashby and finally becoming the manager of Plaza after Henry Charlton the original manager left. I managed the store under the operators until it closed down in 1972 or 1973, after closure I was paid a retainer to open the premises each day for the concessions that were in there, The cafe, the butchers, Mackmans bakery, and Charltons fruit and veg. To reach the balcony you had to climb a flight of stairs to the right of the front doors (after the office and before the toilets), upon reaching a small landing you could turn right and enter the Plaza cafe (best bacon buttie Iâve ever tasted) run by Kath Waterfall, or turn left to a locked door, and through this door was another flight of stairs leading to the balcony itself. The balcony had no seats left ( the only cinema seats left were a small row in a locked room in the cafe at the right hand side, if my memory serves me correctly they were red patterned), instead there were the bare tiers of balcony flooring sloping downwards, ending abruptly where the front curved part used to be and a suspended ceiling was installed covering the whole of the supermarket. The original domed ceiling was left as was but it was a sorry yellow colour being subject to years of cigarette smoke and there was no sign of any original lighting, not that I could see any as the only lighting up there was one bare bulb, you could make out the original screen area at the other end, and they told me I could walk across the suspended ceiling to the screen end but I didnât trust it so I never did. We used to store all our unused equipment on the balcony tiers. Behind the balcony was a walkway which led through doors up a few steps to a passage off which were the electric control room, the projection room and the film storage room. Along this passage was a set of iron ladders leading up to the flat roof, climbing this and outside you got a really good view of Hessle. Just before the start of this passage was another set of stairs (emergency exit) leading down to a set of double doors exiting at the left of the building at the front. I have always had a fascination for old cinemas and working there gave me an excellent opportunity to explore this building completely. I never found any useful or interesting artefacts except a few bundles of unused cinema tickets, the original huge electric transformer was still there as was other associated electrical switch gear, also the two original carbon arc lamp projectors were still there although they had been Vandalised. I was hoping to find some film stills or even trailers or adverts, but the film room floor was just covered with ash as the result of some âkindâ person setting fire to all that was in there after the cinema closed in 1960. Hope this gives a bit of an insight as the building was after closure. And sorry John the only males working there were me, the boss and the warehouse assistant who left before I went there and went on to work at Boyes Hessle Road.
Didn't the Priory become a Quik Save at one point? I used to park in the road outside it and walk to Boothferry park because it was so difficult to park nearer.
What, in between the Chemist and the Pub? Never heard that come up in any conversations growing up. What a fascinating fact. Thanks
That's the back of it, in Clarence Street, Ray. It was originally the Holderness Hall, was renamed the Gaumont in 1950 and, after it closed as a cinema, became the Majestic Ballroom.
Possibly time to post this link again....it was quite a bit back that it was last posted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_cinemas_in_Kingston_upon_Hull
Front view of the Majestic but not as a cinema. And the original Majestic which became the Criterion.
It was the Plaza. It was our family's local cinema. There used to be long queues right to the back of the building, and I remember my father walking up and down, impatiently waiting for the doors to open. There would be a change of film for the second half of the week, and I remember seeing the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy on a Saturday morning. Those were the days!!!
