Category Archives: Fun Palaces: the history and architecture of the entertainment industry

Lost resort in Yorkshire

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Withernsea Pier

Withernsea Pier

I’ve always had a soft spot for Withernsea.  It really shouldn’t exist.

Most of the two villages of Withernsea and Owthorne had disappeared into the sea by the nineteenth century, when Anthony Bannister, a Hull fish-merchant and ship-owner with capital to spare, promoted the Hull & Holderness Railway and – to provide somewhere for visitors to stay when they got off the train – built what became the Queen’s Hotel at the Withernsea terminus in 1854-5.  The railway was unsuccessful because it had only one track and was taken over by a larger company in 1862.

In 1870 Bannister tried again to generate income by founding the Withernsea Pier, Promenade, Gas & General Improvement Co.  The pier was completed in 1877, the year before Bannister died, but in 1882 the Pier Company went bankrupt.

The pier was damaged by storms and collisions in 1880, 1882, 1890 and 1893.  In 1903 the owners gave up and demolished what was left, leaving the twin castellated towers that remain as an ornament to the promenade.  It’s now commemorated by a memorably original seat for weary passers-by.

The geology at Withernsea is so unstable that the lighthouse was built several hundred yards inland, where the bedrock could support a tall enough structure.  Its light guided shipping from 1894 to 1976.  Now it’s a charming little museum with an excellent cup of tea [http://www.withernsealighthouse.co.uk].

It contains a tribute to the actress Kay Kendall, who was born in Withernsea.  Her famous trumpet-playing scene in Genevieve (1953) was dubbed by the jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker:  at the time the film was made neither of them apparently realised that the other came from Withernsea, perhaps because of the five years’ difference in their ages.

It’s not a very big place.

For details of Mike Higginbottom’s lectures on seaside architecture, Away from it all:  the heritage of holiday resorts, Beside the Seaside:  the architecture of British coastal resorts, Blackpool’s Seaside Heritage and Yorkshire’s Seaside Heritage, please click here.

The 80-page, A4 handbook for the 2016 ‘Humber Heritage’ tour, with text, photographs, maps and a reading list, is available for purchase, price £10.00 including postage and packing.  To order a copy, please click here or, if you prefer, send a cheque, payable to Mike Higginbottom, to 63 Vivian Road, Sheffield, S5 6WJ.

The above image is available as a greetings card, price £2.95 for one or £11.95 for a pack of five, or as a notelet to order. For the entire range of Mike Higginbottom Interesting Times greetings cards, please click here.

Lost Empire in Cleethorpes

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Empire Theatre, Cleethorpes

Empire Theatre, Cleethorpes

The Empire Theatre, Cleethorpes is virtually invisible.  When I checked out the resort to run a visit there I discovered textbook references to its existence but it took a great deal of finding. The building stands on the sea front and attracts visitors as an amusement arcade.  It doesn’t have the obvious decorative faience façade of a Frank Matcham variety theatre, and indeed the only exterior clue to its origin is round the back, where a very tall doorway in the back wall is clearly the scene dock.

When I contacted the owner, Rosie Armitage, she was more than ready to give me access and to allow me to bring groups to see the remains of the interior.  What was the stalls is now unrecognisable, but at balcony level – amidst the paraphernalia of Lazer Quest – the proscenium arch and plasterwork remain largely intact, though painted matt black and only visible under working lights.

It’s a spooky time-warp experience to find a late-1890s interior, as it were frozen in time and virtually forgotten.

The place has its share of theatrical stories. 

Sidney Carlton, the lessee in 1899, was “known as much for his frequent court appearances as for his management of the theatre”, and left town abruptly in August of that year. 

A subsequent proprietor, James Carter-White, a chemist who was also a local councillor and a Freemason, established Cleethorpes’ first independent Masonic lodge in the upper rooms. 

The most illustrious performer to appear at the Empire was Charles Coburn, “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo”.  

The place was still playing to full houses as late as the 1950s, but abruptly closed after Jimmy James & Co played there in 1960, and has been an amusement arcade now for nearly as long as it was a theatre.

Update:  Since I first posted this article in May 2010, Lazer Quest has gone and there are admirable schemes to reclaim the building.  See About us – The Empire Cleethorpes and Empire Theatre, Cleethorpes, England – shared interest | Facebook.

For details of Mike Higginbottom’s lecture Fun Palaces:  the history and architecture of the entertainment industry please click here.

The 80-page, A4 handbook for the 2016 ‘Humber Heritage’ tour, with text, photographs, maps and a reading list, is available for purchase, price £10.00 including postage and packing.  To order a copy, please click here or, if you prefer, send a cheque, payable to Mike Higginbottom, to 63 Vivian Road, Sheffield, S5 6WJ.