Proposed Garston Empire, 1 James Street, Garston, Liverpool

The Garston Empire on the corner of James Street and Church Street, Liverpool was built on the site of the former Garston Hall, demolished in the 1880s. A planning application to build a new Theatre on the site of Garston Hall was first submitted on the 12th of November 1912 but was refused, which led Mr. Thomas George Carroll to submit a new application on 7 January 1913. This revised plan to build a Theatre on the site at an estimated cost of £6,000 and was approved but was not progressed. Yet another plan was submitted in July 1913 by the Garston Empire and Picture Theatre Company to the designs of Joseph Pearce. The new Theatre was to be built on two levels, Stalls and Pit, and Circle with two stage boxes and seating for over 1,100 people. The Theatre also included eight dressing rooms and a biograph box for the showing of films.   The plan was accepted but again building work did not go ahead.

In 1914 Alfred Wright, of Walton Park, who was produce broker, submitted a new plan for the building of a Theatre on the site which was to cost £7,500. The plans were approved, finances were at last assured and building work by R. Costain & Sons began. The Garston Empire received its first license for Theatre, Music Hall, and Cinematograph on the 1st of June, 1915, and building work was completed on the 30th of June. The newly built Theatre had seating for 815 people on two levels, Stalls and Circle, a stage of just 15 feet deep, and seven dressing rooms for the artistes that it hoped to attract. Variety and Music Hall were the main entertainment on offer but right from the start it was also showing early films too. Despite being host to some top name stars such as Gracie Fields and Tommy Handley however, the Theatre was to have a short life as a live Variety Theatre. By 1918, only three years after the Garston Empire opened, live theatre ceased and the Theatre was in use only as a Cinema, with a diet of silent films. [Arthur Lloyd]

It closed as a cinema in December 1962 and reopened 5 days later as a bingo hall, which it remained until 2014

Reference        Arthur Lloyd