Looking Back: Opening of the Lido Cinema brought touch of Venice to Bolton

This photo was taken in 1937 to mark the opening of what was, at the time, Bolton’s most luxurious cinema.

The Lido on Bradshawgate opened in March and had been built both to show the latest films but also to host live stage shows. You can see the cinema organ on the stage.

The interior was decorated with a Venetian them including a large mural above the theatre arch.

There were nine dressing rooms and other facilities included a café and restaurant.

Over the years it has also been a bingo hall and casino and been known as the Studio Cinema, Cannon Cinema and ABC Cinema. It closed in 1998 and was demolished in 2006.

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I always liked the Lido more than the Odeon or the Capitol (which I knew it as even though it became the ABC).

There were also two Asian cinemas I never went to, the Queens at the bottom of Trinity Street and one at the bottom of Vernon Street with the junction of St George's Road.


Do people go to the cinema anymore?

Dunkirk was the last film I went seeing, strangely my daughter wanted to see it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered and the last one before that was The Woman in Black, when me and the woman I was seeing at the time brought our respective daughters in an attempt as a sort of a 'family bonding' session that failed miserably - not so happy days that time!

I used to go the ABC cinema as a teenager, the Odeon had shut by then i think? The ABC certainly didn't look like that in the 80's 

Only been to the cinema with the kids since they were born, can't remember the last time me and Mrs Norpig went, think it may have been the first Daniel Craig 007 film? Not many small cinema's left now, its all big multiplexes and even they are struggling now.

With all the streaming platforms now you can just stay at home and watch films now, even the ones on at the cinema are often on Amazon, Netflix or Disney plus as well.