The corner of the Empire Theatre and Robson’s Motorcycle shop, Bridge Road, Stockton. The Town Hall can be seen in the background c1960s.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The corner of the Empire Theatre and Robson’s Motorcycle shop, Bridge Road, Stockton. The Town Hall can be seen in the background c1960s.
It was like an early shopping mall in there..lots of small shop-fronts most of which seemed unused and dusty. It was L-shaped. In from Bridge Rd and out again in Castlegate.
When you entered the Empire and went down those windy corridors to the ticket sales, I was interested in those small over-painted windows at floor level that must have given light to the tunnels that seemed to be under the whole area.
Directly opposite at the beginning of Yarm Lane was a cycle repair shop Fred Somebody…his apprentice told me that their whole workshop floor was a large hinged trap-door that led down to underground tunnels and metal candle-holders were still in place
Of interest to me was the tunnel walkway just behind the lamp post which allowed patrons a side entrance into the Empire, there was often a queue of patrons to be seen inside it waiting to get in, a male cinema usher used to walk up and down the queue shouting “he had seats for one, or seats for two people” etc. The Empire was famous for showing ad-infinitum pre-war gangster movies featuring James Cagney (What’s your angle sister? What bank do you want me to stick up?) Humphrey Bogart (Where I’m going you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of) and the incomparable Edward G Robinson in ‘Little Caesar’ (Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?) Peter Lorre (Can I kill him?) or Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier (Cathy. I’m here. I’ll never leave you again.) and Merle Oberon, (It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff) what happy days for many Stocktonians 3 hours inside the Empire cinema was. There was a record shop around the other corner and a snooker hall above it – but who cares – when downstairs in the Empire there was such a glamourous world for just a 1/-.(£0-05p)
Was there a record shop somewhere in this area, I remember my uncle buying me a Bill Haley 78
from here. This would be 1956 or so.
The nearest record shop would have been Curry’s on the corner of Yarm Lane…then Leslie Browns in the High Street.
I know Curry’s were selling LP’s in the early sixties although they didnt have much stock and the odd stuff we wanted had to be ordered… John Lee Hooker on Stateside and Hank Williams in Concert. I have no memory of them selling records earlier
Was Vaux Brewery yard on this block?
The ornamental gates and the buildings either side were office buildings and entrance to the Castle Brewery and later the CWS Jam Factory. When I worked in Brougham Street Engineering works it was off the bus and a paper from the shop next to Robsons, I remember a lovely lady working there serving papers cigarettes and sweets for those of us who never smoked.
The gates were closed and the entrance moved to Tower Street by then as Bridge Road was very busy. That whole area was a hive of industry the CWS employed lots of women, there were working Mills and Engineering works and the docks behind those streets were still busy with ships unloading.
We had to repair a Hatch Cover that had been damaged in a North Sea storm and were told if we did not finish before the tide lifted the ship off the mud bank we would be going down river and coming back on the Pilot launch. The Coaming looked like spaghetti but we got it back in shape so the hatch would fit and clamp down just as the boat lifted, we flew off that boat as I had a dance date and nothing got in the way of that. Young free and fit, what a life we led.
I remember this, if you look closely there is a newsagents shop next to Robsons.
First job I had was selling spare parts in Robsons Motorcycles. The newsagents next door was Eastwoods..run by two sisters.
Robsons took over the premises from Stan Jones who had a garage there for years previously. The attic rooms were full of old Lucas spare parts that would be worth a fortune now… really antique yellow signal arms… all unused and still in their packaging… magneto bits and carbon brushes.
I could never find out what it all belonged to as the part numbers were so old, they didnt appear in the Lucas spares catalogues of the 1960’s.
Every time I mentioned “Curry’s” I should have said Barry’s…..That was Barry’s Corner after all!