The Bull Ring cinema in Park Street

[stickman]

Is it going to be kept or is it due for demolition?  Would it make a good concert venue or club which at one point it was. 

[Phil]

I remember in the 60's when the back end of it was used for an amusement arcade. I don't think it lasted all that long though.
 
Phil

[Phil]

Just a couple of points of interest concerning the Bull Ring cinema. It opened in 1863 as the London Museum Concert Hall known to all as the "Mucker" It then became the Canterbury Music Hall and then in 1912 a 480 seat cinema. It closed as a cinema in 1931.

[pickard.r]

I found this on another website, I remember the Karate club but didn,t realise the history of the building.

An example of an early music hall attached to a pub (the Royal George Tavern) the London Museum Concert Hall opened in 1863. It underwent many changes of name, but is often referred to as Coutts Music Hall, a name it held from 1897 until July 1912 when it closed and was internally rebuilt to re-open as the Bull Ring Cinema.It never had sound installed and closed as a cinema in December 1931. Throughout it’s life, theatre and cinema it was a known ‘rough’ house, with the nickname of ‘The Mucker’. In 1890 one stage manager was murdered in the hall!
Externally it is a plain building with six double doors on the ground floor arranged 1-1-2-2, entry was via the single pair on the left side of the facade. Above this at 1st and 2nd floor level are six blind arches, the height suggesting that originally there may have been two shallow balconies.
The interior was swept away when it was converted to a cinema in 1912, and again after films ceased in the early-1930’s, when the former auditorium was sub-divided to form a sports club and a restaurant. The club later became a pub and after that a nightclub and karate centre.


In October 2009 the building is empty, with demolition and site redevelopment imminent.


Bobby