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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Dan Haygarth & Graeme Murray

Inside grand abandoned historic cinema that appears to be frozen in time

A glimpse has been given behind the doors of a historic cinema which shows how it has been frozen in time.

The grand building once attracted hundreds of visitors every week in its heyday.

Fond memories will remain with people who visited the former ABC cinema in Liverpool.

It first opened as the Forum in 1931 and the spectacular ornate building that evokes memories of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The Liverpool Echo tells how it attracted viewers long before the days of the multiplex or streaming.

It was once home to three cinemas, the ABC was the largest of them, while the Futurist and the Scala cut smaller figures.

Inside the old ABC cinema in the centre of Liverpool (Kyle Urbex)
The seating area where people settled down to wait for film beginning (Kyle Urbex)

It entertained audiences for nearly 70 years but closed its doors in January 1998 with a final showing of Casablanca.

The ABC has stood silent since closing and its future is unclear.

In November 2019, the council said a "number of options" were being considered for the future of the property.

Around three years later, planners gave it the green light to turn it into a performance venue.

Some of the cinema seats were vandalised or ripped out (Kyle Urbex)
The once grand entrance is a shadow of its former self (Kyle Urbex)

It was talked up as a state-of-the-art music and entertainment venue to host live performances inside the famous auditorium, holding up to 1,500 people, but little more was then heard about the project.

Pictures taken in April by urban explorer Kyle Urbex show the cinema in a state of disrepair - a long way from its heyday and some way from the "frozen in time" look it had in 2020.

The Mirror told last month how another urban explorer shared footage from his exploration of an abandoned wedding venue that closed suddenly over lockdown, never to reopen.

The stairway leading up to the cinema (Kyle Urbex)
The food stall which was visited by so many before a film (Kyle Urbex)

Daniel Sims, 33, found that lights had been left on in the still beautiful venue, with tables set with napkins and glassware in the large dining room, ready for wedding toasts.

Even the bedrooms remain set up to welcome guests, with towels laid out neatly on the beds.

One of the bedrooms contained an impressive four-poster bed, perfect for newlyweds.

Daniel, who films inside buildings across the UK that are no longer in use, described experiencing an "eerie" feeling while inside the hotel as if they "were being watched".

The screen were so many pictures were shown in its hey day (Kyle Urbex)
Some parts of the cinema have been badly neglected or vandalised (Kyle Urbex)

He first learned about Northop Hall Country House Hotel in Wales after reading an article about its closure and decided to head up to have a look for himself back in January.

The hotel first opened its doors back in 1872 and many weddings were held there up until the coronavirus pandemic struck in March 2020.

Many engaged couples had paid deposits to hold their wedding receptions at Northop Hall Country House Hotel, but sadly, the hotel never reopened and remains silent and abandoned to this day.

Daniel said: “There was so much left behind and the strangest part was the wedding function rooms themselves which appeared like they had been set up for weddings that never happened".

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