The Empire.
 

My parents always talked fondly of the Empire, a dance hall in Ossy in the '50's and early '60's.

I knew that it was near the Palladium, but always assumed it was demolished. In fact it is still there, and can be seen up a little alley near the old Ossy Technical school, with the red bricked Country Kitchens on the corner, which used to be a pub, but whose name escapes me.

Before it was a dance hall it was a cinema. My Mum told me it was the cheapest of the four cinemas in Ossy, as you had to sit on wooden benches!

Anyone else used to go bopping at Ossy's rock 'n' roll Empire?

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It's an old building, and wasn't a purpose built cinema, it looks a bit like an old sunday school, or something indusrtial. It has an old sign up saying Killingbeck Engineering, who was someone I knew, and looks like it is still in use as something.

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Don't know if the link to this map will work, but the little alley isn't shown on this map, but as you are coming up Union Road it is the next turning after Foxhill Bank Brow, with Country Kitchens on the corner.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...x=289&down.y=8

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i thought it was the palladium! that used to be a cinema

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It did. ........

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your spot on rindy with your location of the Empire dance hall. went to a reunion up james st a few years ago now.

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It won't be long before we are having a James St reunion.

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i practially lived up th' empire in my teens saturday, sunday, & wednesday night..sometimes friday night too ooo it were terrific, i remember being taken to the empire cinema ossy to watch the story of the miricale of fatima from st mary's school.

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Garinda is it the building i've marked with the yellow star??

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...1&d=1172764819

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I think it is the building behind Country Kitchens in the photograph.
You go down the little alley between Country Kitchens and the building you marked with the yellow asterix, and it's the building running northish to southish in the photograph.

Hope that's clear (...as mud.):D

Thanks Lolly.

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Aah!! right. I knew it was there but never took any notice of it. If you look at it from Union Rd. At the other side of Country Kitchens from the alley way. Up the side of the building it looks like part of its been knocked down at some point and that there was some stairs.

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I'm going to have to go for a wander now!! I've never seen the whole building, so will now have to go and have a look otherwise it will annoy me as to what it looks like :D

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country kitchens used to be the royal arms pub and my mum used to go to the empire when she were young , i think its some kind of garage now ,

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think thats it cos you went down to the bottom of the alley. if memory serves me well.;)

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I think this is it.

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That's the building.

Thanks very much Firefighter.:)

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On the gable end you can clearly see a bricked up gothic arched window, which made me think it might have originally been connected with a church, but I'm really just guessing on that one.

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Correct firefighter, however, the entrance has been knocked down.

Great nights up there, but in retrospect, was a little grotty. Had to go up to the balcony to snog your latest ...itchy seats ... had a mirror in the corridor which a certain 'beau' used to attend regularly to comb his quiff into place .. :D

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ive lived in ossy all me life and i didnt even know that was there!!:o
I must walk round with me eyes shut:cool:

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Yes, it's dead ended back (side) alley, you'd struggle to drive down it.

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ummm you could have a point there garinda...would be interesting to know ...

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It was the Empire cinema when I was young and I went there fairly often. It was a bit lower down the pecking order than the Palladium but higher than the Queens Hall, which later became the Tudor. All three were better than the Ritz in Accy, known locally as the Bug Hut. :p

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you learn something new every day i thought it was the palladeum which like the queens then became a bingo hall aroma lady

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Had some very good nights up there many years ago also some good old scraps between church and ossy lads. we,ll never see the likes of places
like that again:Banane25:

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:) Sorry to be late (!), but I think that the building was originally the New Jerusalem Temple and was built in about 1842. A great grandfather of mine got married there in 1868. And, yes, I too sometimes went to the Empire Dance Hall - around late 1959/early 1960.

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thats the empire sorted, who remembers the one opposite the shopfitters, was it the palace, thats gone altogether now,and new buildings in place, went past at the weekend but didnt take much notice on what the new buildings was,

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My parents, my brother and myself had regular seats booked at the Palace every Sat night 1st house, front row centre of balcony.

New houses now on the site -
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Osw...,49.04,,0,6.07

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Those were the days when you booked the same seats every week. I used to go to the Palladium with my grandma, I was about 6 or 7 at the time, in those days (unless it was a real headliner film)the films changed 3 times every week Monday Wednesday and Friday, we used to go to the first house 3 times a week and sat in the same seats every time, if there was a big film on we booked the seats in advance, the god old days

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i remember the palladium well, usually saturday afternoons, and a western, and running all the way home slapping my bum pretending i was on a horse, ha,ha,but the palace was nearer as we lived on roegreave road then,my doctor was on the same road rhyddings street,dr.millar,

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good old Cecil was quite friendly with his daughter

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The Palace in Rhyddings Street was used as St. Paul's Church Hall for a number of years after it closed as a cinema. The four houses now on the site were built about the mid-80s. I remember Dr. Millar's surgery very well. He never spent much on the decor. The same wallpaper was on for about 30 years, also the orange plastic chairs were there for ages. There were no appointments then. Surgery was morning and evening. There was no receptionist. You sat in the waiting room till he buzzed. If the waiting room was full you stood in the corridor. If the corridor was full you stood on the path outside. Everybody always got seen, though not necessarily for long! Dr. Millar and family used to live in the house next door. Then in the late 50s they had a new house built on Dene Bank Road near the park and he turned his old house into a nursing home.

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I went there in my teens on a Sunday evening, it finished at 9.30. If you did not own a watch you knew it was approaching 9.30 as the last record played was always...Michael
Haliday singing 'Some Day I'm Gonna Write the Story of My Life' we were on a cruise a while ago and this was played and I was transported back to the tiny dance floor of my youth ...Happy Days.