Belle Vue's Showcase Cinema was the place to be in the 90s. Before the building was demolished to make way for a new high school, locals from south and east Manchester flocked to its 14-screens for the latest movie, leaving many with happy memories.
But pictures taken inside the building, after it was left abandoned during the coronavirus pandemic, paint a gloomier picture. An urban explorer shared eerie images of its empty rooms and corridors on social media.
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An urban explorer identified only as Kyle said the venue - which first opened in October 1989 - felt 'frozen in time' with old movie posters left strewn across the floor, decaying food stalls and rows upon rows of dusty, green seating. He said: "Once inside I was taken back to the usual Showcase Cinema decor now sitting dormant and in complete silence.
"It really was an epic experience. The rooms were fairly intact; they were clean; almost as ff someone had locked up for the day and not come back.
"I'd say a state of frozen in time, eerie feeling, they weren't mouldy or rotting but they were indeed stuck in a time warp. I was quite surprised that so much remained, from old movie posters to even the decaying food stalls and the iconic green-styled seating in the cinema rooms, complete with screens and even projector rooms."
Sharing the pictures with his 4364 followers on Instagram (@kyle_urbex), Kyle added: "It was a surreal experience and I'm glad I managed to get inside and document the whole building. I really enjoyed the jazzy carpet and it still smelt of an old cinema, the whole experience was not one I will easily forget. I didn't personally have any spooky experiences.
"I did however take a seat in the back row of one of the rooms and wonder to myself how on earth such a building could be left to close because of how iconic and well-loved it must have been by the locals!"
The cinema closed during the first lockdown in 2020 and never re-opened after Showcase's owners National Amusements Ltd LLC agreed to sell the land to Manchester City Council. Diggers moved in last year to demolish the building and make way for a new school.
Co-op Academy Belle Vue will eventually take in 1,200 pupils, with work set to be finished on the new facility later this year. Students are expected to move in some time either before the end of this year or early in 2023.
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