Pub history
The Regent
This pub is the former Regent cinema, and also the Essoldo bingo hall.
This is an unmissable local landmark, still known to many locals as ‘The Regent’ from its days as the town’s leading cinema. The Regent Cinema opened on 6 October 1930. The auditorium was decorated in a ‘modern French’ style, with seating for 650 in the stalls and 500 in the circle. Renamed the Essoldo, in 1961, it was converted into a bingo hall four years later. Part of the old building reopened as The Regent in 1988 and as the Cineplex in 2004.
A plaque documenting the history of The Regent
The plaque reads: This Wetherspoon free house is the former Regent cinema, which opened on 6 October 1930 and was converted into a bingo hall in the mid-1960s. The ‘modern French’-style auditorium seated 650 in the stalls and 500 in the circle. The Regent was designed by Alfred J Graves, who designed several other eye-catching cinemas in the area. The entrance to the former Regent stands on the site of the once well-known Wightman’s butcher shop.
These premises were refurbished by J D Wetherspoon in January 2013.