The Empire Theatre, High Street, Aldershot

Later - The Odeon Cinema / Kings Centre / Empire Banqueting Hall

Aldershot Theatres Index

Above - A Google StreetView Image of the former Empire Theatre, and also the Ritz Cinema, Aldershot - Click to Interact

The Empire Theatre was built for the Empire (Aldershot) Ltd., primarily as a Cinema but it did also have a large stage and its own Compton Organ 2/6 on a lift. The Theatre was designed by the architect Harold S. Scott and built next door to the later Ritz Cinema, on land which was previously occupied by the Royal Engineers, and opened on the 1st of August 1930. The auditorium was built on two levels, stalls and one horse shoe shaped balcony and had seating for 1,599.

In 1931 the Theatre was taken over by the County Circuit and by 1937 the capacity had been reduced to 1,458 seats. The Organ was removed in 1959 and more information about this can be read below.

The Theatre was eventually renamed the Odeon on the 18th of January 1964. This should not be confused with the Odeon on Barrack Road which was formerly the Alexandra Music Hall, or the Odeon on the High Street next door to the Empire which was formerly the Ritz.

The Odeon, High Street, formerly the Empire Theatre, closed on the 17th of October 1981 and the building was later taken over by a Christian organisation and called The Kings Centre.

The former Theatre and Cinema was bought by the Property Company HPS in 2015 who planed to use the building as an entertainment venue hosting concerts, shows and exhibitions. Today it is in use as the Empire Banqueting Hall.

The removal of the Organ from the Empire Theatre / Odeon Cinema in 1959

A visitor to the site, Michael Bailey has sent in the following information about the removal of the Empire Theatre's Compton Organ in 1959:- 'In 1959 a friend and I spent a week working nights, to remove the Compton organ in the Empire / Odeon Cinema, Aldershot. Piece by piece we dismantled the organ and carried the parts from the organ rooms above the screen, along a 2 feet wide walkway above the ceiling, the length of the auditorium, to an entrance hatch in the projection box. All the parts from the smallest pipe up to the enormously big electric motor and heavy air compressor had to be dragged down through the projection box into the foyer for collection by a furniture removal van. I remember well one evening while dragging parts along the walkway, I slipped, and my foot went through the ceiling leaving a hole and depositing plaster and dust into the Dress Circle! I also remember every night, seeing the last 10 minutes of the film "A Heart of a Man" staring Frankie Vaughan, as we waited to get up through the projection box ceiling trapdoor.

The Compton's 2 keyboard console was the last to be disconnected and along with all the other parts were driven to The Mill, Oxnead, Buxton, Norfolk where Group Captain Jim Crampton, owner of Norfolk Airways and subsequently Air Anglia, re assembled the organ in the watermill, which provided the electrical power to drive the compressors. On the occasions when I visited the Mill the organ was in frequent use and other organs were planned for other areas in the Mill. I have not heard from the Crampton family for some time and Jim died in 1987. I am not aware of any other news relating to the organ although there were rumours that it was to be sold.' - Michael Bailey.

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