The Empire strikes back
9:24am Friday 8th September 2006
A SWINDON cinema is to be given a new name after a change of ownership.
The Empire Cinema Group has agreed a deal to take over the Cineworld cinema at Greenbridge Retail Park.
The new Empire cinema will be open for business before the end of the year.
Empire chief executive Justin Ribbons said: "We have acquired the Swindon site after negotiating with Cineworld and the landlord Prudential.
"We will have our signage up and the cinema will be converted by the end of this year."
Mr Ribbons explained that the Greenbridge site has changed hands because of competition laws.
He said: "In 2005 Odeon and UCI Cinemas were bought on the same day by a venture capitalist. They merged and were required by the Office of Fair Trading to sell 11 of their cinemas.
"A little later Cineworld and UGC merged and were required by the Office of Fair Trading to divest seven of their cinema businesses, one of which is Swindon."
Empire Cinemas has been trading for nine months, and has bought both groups of cinemas in a deal worth more than £100m.
Mr Ribbons said: "I cannot confirm the deal for the Swindon cinema. What I can say is that the national deal is worth more than £100m and the Swindon site is a significant part of that."
The group takes its name from the flagship site The Empire in Leicester Square.
Mr Ribbons said that customers would see a range of changes to the cinema.
He said: "We are looking to improve the quality of the cinema experience. We will be showing all the usual blockbusters but we hope to bring less well-distributed films too.
"The Queen, with Helen Mirren, is not going to that many cinemas but we hope to have it showing soon."
The facilities and personnel will be different too.
"The staff will receive annual training and we will be ripping out all of the slot machines," he said.
"We will be putting in a caf bar and better quality refreshments."
But there will be continuity too.
"We won't be radically changing what films we show, because it is a family cinema and that is important.
"Our pricing structure won't change, so there shouldn't be a ticket price increase either."
Swindon Advertiser filmwriter Stephen Webb said customers should notice little change with the takeover.
"The public want choice and with 12 screens at the Greenbridge site, then there should be plenty of choice," he said.
"Cinema attendances are declining, but this is an exciting time for cinema-going in Swindon. We will effectively have a new cinema at Greenbridge, we still have the seven-screen Cineworld at Shaw Ridge, and there is talk of building a new town centre cinema."
A familiar name returns
THE arrival of the Empire Cinema at Greenbridge will bring the name back to Swindon.
In 1855 the Empire Theatre, originally called The New Queen's Theatre, opened in Groundwell Road, with seats up to 1,600 people.
The architect was Brightwen Binyon, who also designed the Town Hall, built in 1891, and the extension to the Mechanics' Institute, opened in 1893.
It was renamed the Empire Theatre in 1906.
The theatre was originally managed by Ernest Carpenter, an impresario from Bristol, and proved a success until the arrival of the cinema, particularly the opening of the Regent in 1929.
From then until after the Second World War the Empire was converted to a cinema, but also hosted an annual pantomime.
Laurel and Hardy even appeared there in the twilight of their careers.
Some of the stars of British showbiz during the next generation also trod the Empire boards, including Bruce Forsyth and Frankie Howerd.
The theatre closed abruptly in 1955, during a run of the pantomime Robinson Crusoe, and was demolished in 1959.