Looking Back at the Essoldo Picture House
This view of the Essoldo Picture House at the Spanish City seems to date from the week beginning October 15, 1962.
The film being shown was Judgement at Nuremburg. This is possibly the last run at the cinema before its conversion into the Las Vegas Arcade.
The Picture House was founded by Richard W Brown, one of the earliest film exhibitors on Tyneside, with experience dating back to 1896. A paragraph in the Shields Daily News for July 1916 announced that he intended opening a new Picture Hall at the Spanish City. He already ran the nearby Pavilion Electric Theatre.
The Stanley Rogers Group took over in the early 1930s. It began to be advertised as part of the Essoldo chain in 1950.
If anyone has any further information please email [email protected]