Retro: A cinematic tale of two buildings

David Cliffe • Published 26 Nov 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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AS Max Miller used to say: "Now here's a funny thing!"

In Elm Park Road, a street of 1890s terraced houses, are two larger buildings with half-hipped gables. There are three small houses between the larger buildings.

I became aware of this when someone gave me an album of newspaper cuttings and photographs containing this picture, which struck me as being odd.

I reached for the old Reading street directories, and could see these buildings listed from 1895 until 1976, when they stopped publishing the directories.

Unfortunately, of course, although the directories show what the buildings were used for, they don't say who built them like that, and why.

In 1895, the building with the round window was the hall of the Reading West Corps of the Salvation Army - though it may not necessarily have been built for them.

In 1909, it was described as a "dancing hall," but then, an even greater surprise, in 1919 it appears as the Empire Picture Theatre.

I wonder just how many cinemas there have been in Reading over the years.

Those that lasted into the 1960s and 70s are still remembered, but I hadn't come across The Empire before. Perhaps there is scope for someone to produce a comprehensive book about cinemas in the town.

The Empire was still there in 1929, but by the time of the Second World War, both of the larger buildings were being used as a mineral water factory run by Alfred Matthews.

In 1959 the firm was being advertised as "exclusive bottlers of Pepsi-Cola".

Internet searching has so far failed to prove just how "exclusive" the franchise was.

By 1969 the buildings were being used as a tyre depot by Regional Tyre Services - a rather more mundane use than the days of the Empire.

* Please get in touch if you know more about these buildings - or have interesting memories of them. Call 0118 955 3303.

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