Before the advent of dreary out-of-town multiplexes, every high street boasted a cinema like The Regal. Most are now sad and hollowed out relics, home to carpet warehouses and luxury flats, so the Regal is a cherishable oddity - and a lovely reminder of a largely lost era.
Does it have the biggest screen? The loudest sound system? The biggest buckets of pop corn? Nein.
However, does it have architectural merit, charm and - above all - atmosphere. Now, admittedly, this atmosphere is generated in part by the kind of seating arrangement that predates the obesity crisis - and you might struggle for elbow room if you are bigger than, say, Danny Devito, but this kind of cheek-by-jowel feel is the perfect way to see a big summer Event Movie.
We took in the last Harry Potter film here and the combination of steeply angled seating, old style uplighting and physical closeness to our fellow viewers helped to create a genuine sense of sharing the experience with other people.
As mentioned, this comes at a cost: if you're a tubster, or suffer from deep-vein thrombosis, or if you are one of the people we seem to have bred of late who don't like being in proximity to other people, then you'd probably be better off seeking a dreary, out-of-town multiplex.
Otherwise, to see how we kicked it back in the old skool, there probably aren't many better examples left in the country. read more
