Feature
Take a look inside the creepy abandoned Belle Vue Showcase cinema
Who else has great memories of this place?
The Belle Vue Showcase cinema was somewhat of an iconic venue in Manchester, however, it is set to be demolished and replaced.
The news came late last year that the cinema would be demolished to make way for a new secondary school.
The school, ran by the Co-op, is planning on having its first year sevens students in by September, although they’ll be placed in temporary buildings.
Sir Robert McAlpine / Space Architects
The new Co-Op Academy Belle Vue school is set to be finished in 2023, and a first glimpse of what it will look like has now been released.
Newly released documents show a modern L-shaped building, which will be split into three different ‘zones’, including a two-storey sports block – complete with a sports hall, auditorium, and drama studio.
The iconic cinema first opened its doors in 1989 boasting a huge 14 screens in the entertainment complex.
Closing its doors back in March 2020, the cinema had been left abandoned all last year and started to look seriously creepy.
The timeline for demolition hasn’t been given yet, and parents had to have applied for their child’s place in the new school by November 2nd last year – in case you were wanting to.
Once the grounds of Belle Vue zoo and amusement park, the area will definitely have some stories to tell.
The Belle Vue Showcase cinema was one of the first multi-screen complexes to open up, bringing American films, no queues and car parks to fit a 1,000 cars – it was unlike anything that had ever been seen before when it first opened back in 1989.
Back in February last year when rumours began to circulate the cinema would be closing, Mark Barlow, general manager at Showcase Cinemas UK, said: “As the leader in UK cinema innovation, Showcase Cinemas remains committed to operating a cinema in Manchester and as such are in active discussions about future opportunities for a new, state-of-art cinema in the city.”
If you’re going to miss this iconic venue, the company are said to be looking into a new unnamed location for another cinema. They added that they ‘remain fully committed to the city’.