The Empire, Charles Street

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This thread has inspired me to have another look around Sheffield Library Picture archives.

 

Clicky....The Empire was IMO one of the most beaut looking buildings that has been flattened in Sheffield.

 

Interestingly in this picture, it looks like even after bomb damage, people must have done their best to save it.

[ronart]

Nigel Womersle, Thanks for interest shown in my message.What I reffered to as "cages"

was a series of hand rails which zig-zag the queue in a small room

near the top of the many flights of stairs. Usually, we were held there

for five to ten minutes before being allowed to proceed into the "Gods."

or Gallery. I would estimate that the small room with hand rails had a

maximum capacity of thirty people, which on Saturday night was only

the start of the queue. At the time, most people called the small room

"The Cages" no doubt because the people in it were held there, as in

a cage.

[hillsbro]

I only ever went to a couple of (superb) pantos at the Empire, but I remember once walking down Charles Street with my father, and he said "Look!". I looked - and a man eased his ample frame out of a car and walked past us into the Empire. It was the Jewish singer/comedian Issy Bonn (of "My Yiddishe Momma" fame). Unfortunately I didn't have my autograph book handy! I never met Johnny Spitzer but my parents knew him. I seemed to recall that he died young, and so I just looked him up on findmypast.com - he was 45 when he died in 1971.

[BLITZER]

The Empire Theatre had a very lucky escape during the blitz. Buildings either side of it were bombed,one,a large furniture shop,was completely burned out. Thankfully,the theatre survived the war,only to fall under the bulldozer some years later. Pity.

[Nigel Womersle]

Nigel Womersle, Thanks for interest shown in my message.What I reffered to as "cages"

was a series of hand rails which zig-zag the queue in a small room

near the top of the many flights of stairs. Usually, we were held there

for five to ten minutes before being allowed to proceed into the "Gods."

or Gallery. I would estimate that the small room with hand rails had a

maximum capacity of thirty people, which on Saturday night was only

the start of the queue. At the time, most people called the small room

"The Cages" no doubt because the people in it were held there, as in

a cage.

 

Apologies Ronart.

[Nigel Womersle]

The Empire Theatre had a very lucky escape during the blitz. Buildings either side of it were bombed,one,a large furniture shop,was completely burned out. Thankfully,the theatre survived the war,only to fall under the bulldozer some years later. Pity.

 

Henry Hall and his Orchestra were appearing at The Empire the Thursday night of the blitz. I think just one of its front towers was destroyed, and a room near 'the Gods' too. Word got round that Henry Hall had been killed in the raid. This caused him after that to always say 'This is Henry Hall speaking'. The Empire finally closed its doors in 1959. It was a lovely theatre.

[hillsbro]

The picturesheffield.com website has a photo of the Empire theatre with the right-hand turret missing after the blitz - see photo No s01636

[*_ash_*]

The picturesheffield.com website has a photo of the Empire theatre with the right-hand turret missing after the blitz - see photo No s01636

See post #31

[hillsbro]

See post #31

 

Ooops! I hadn't actually followed the link; I just looked into my own notes on photos from the library on-line archive, to respond to the previous post about bomb damage. The Sheffield Library doesn't allow their photos to be used on any other websites, though I suppose a link is OK - I just cautiously quoted the photo number. I was surprised to see in the photo that the name of the theatre was actually the "Empire Palace" but I never knew it be called anything but the "Empire". The original post mentioned several small theatres in the West Bar area that closed because they couldn't compete with the Empire. I seem to remember that one of these, in Gibraltar Street, burned down in the 1980s - the site is now occupied by a used car dealership. In a sense, this harked back to the Theatre Royal, which burned down in 1935.

[SheShe]

I remember waiting outside the Empire for Tommy Steeles autograph.

Unfortunately I couldn't afford to go in and see him but I got the autograph.

Don't know what happened to it.