29/04/2026
I love Cleethorpes — I can remember watching shows in the pier pavilion and the local Scouts Gang Show at the ABC Cleethorpes (formerly The Ritz).
The resort today has the attractive, family-run Parkway Cinema, which occasionally hosts modest live shows, while Grimsby's contemporary Auditorium is said to fall short on atmosphere and acoustics. The Caxton Players, a popular amateur dramatic society,
present their own productions in the small former Plaza Cinema, though it doesn't host visiting performers.
Sadly, the area has lost so many theatres and cinemas over the years. Grimsby once had one of the highest cinema-to-population ratios in Lincolnshire during the inter-war years — a time when these venues weren't just entertainment but somewhere to be seen, catch up on gossip, or simply have a reason to get dressed up.
Cleethorpes itself enjoyed the remarkable Theatre Royal (demolished 1963/4), the Coliseum Picture House (now a Wetherspoons, retaining a fine 1920 façade but
nothing of its original interior), and the large Ritz — later the ABC Cleethorpes, now the site of a McDonald's. Grimsby had notable theatres of its own: the Prince of Wales (later demolished for the Regal Super Cinema), the Palace Theatre (now a car park, though its former theatre bar has been sympathetically converted to retail),
The Hippodrome (demolished after a fire) and the Tivoli (lost due to enemy action in WWII) being the primary ones.
Of the surviving former theatre and cinema buildings, the Regal is now an indoor play centre, the Tower a stationers warehouse, and the Savoy a McDonald's with its few remaining features hidden from view. That leaves the Empire as the only viable
building with realistic potential to return to public use as an entertainment venue — should it become available and sufficient funding be secured. There is genuine community feeling that it should once again serve the purpose for which it was built, back in 1896, 130 years ago.
