The day Elsie came to Morley

There was a celebrated visit to Morley by H.M. Queen Elizabeth 2nd & Prince Philip in 1954, for which purpose the place was much spruced up and a W.C. was specially installed in the Town Hall should Betty require to powder her nose during the visit. (Apparently she didn’t and it was subsequently dismantled).

However, another member of royalty also visited twice in 1968, that TV Superstar and Queen of Soap Lover’s TV schedules, actress Pat Phoenix, otherwise known as Elsie Tanner from Coronation Street. She opened two buildings; the new (& still trading) DFS Furniture store in March and the refurbished (& now defunct) Star Bingo less than six months later in August.

The Star Bingo, which became Walkers Bingo, was formerly the New Pavilion Cinema, built as a Theatre in 1911 and featured previously on this blog. Up until now, no early  interior photos of the Pavilion were known to be available and local author Ronnie Barraclough struggled to find any at all for his book Morley Entertainers and for previous research into the building. (There are a few photos of actors on stage and in the foyer but not of the auditorium).

However, last autumn, journalist Stephen White was invited to give a presentation at the Morley Literature Festival and he looked though his extensive collection of Leslie Overend photographs for a selection of topics. He found some shots of the Pat Phoenix Bingo opening including some curious interior shots which I reproduce below.

Stephen mentioned that he found the photos surprisingly evocative; it transported him back to messing about at Saturday afternoon picture shows as a youngster, having a great time and generally returning home much dirtier than when he went out. Having seen the state of the carpets in some of these photos, that is hardly surprising!

Hover for additional comments.

Thanks once again to Stephen White and leslieoverend.com for finding these very rare interior shots and for letting me reproduce these images. High quality prints or scans from his huge collection are available by contacting him.

Additional note: It looks like the Star Bingo banner above the proscenium which I took to be a pelmet is actually painted directly onto the Safety Curtain.