A city centre cinema that thousands of people pass everyday has stood frozen in time for over 20 years.
Lime Street was once home to three ABC cinemas - The Forum, The Futurist and, just before you arrived at Renshaw Street, The Scala.
But the Forum is now the last one standing with The Futurist and The Scala being demolished in 2016 and 2017 as Lime Street reached a new phase of redevelopment. The art deco cinema that overlooks St John's shopping centre, first opened as the Forum in 1931.
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It was renamed the ABC in 1971 and is still widely known by that name, despite the company changing hands in 1986, with the cinema becoming The Cannon. The cinema closed its doors in January 1998 with a final showing of the film Casablanca.
Urban explorers Courtney and Andrew, 23, recently took a look around the building on March 9, which has now stood derelict for over two decades.
Courtney told the ECHO: "It was very creepy and eerie, I had a scared anxiety. You're in such a big room and you can tell nobody had been there for such a long time. There was old sweet wrappers, old coke bottles - you forget over time how things change.
"When you walk in you can definitely see it was such a popular place that's so empty and quiet now."
In November 2019, the council said a "number of options" were being considered for the future of the building, three years after it gave the green light to plans to turn it into a performance venue.
The latter 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 subsequently heard about the project.
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