Wallsend
The Ritz, Wallsend
Last Updated:
31 Mar 2025
Wallsend
This is a
Cinema, Bingo Hall
54.990525, -1.537080
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Percy Lindsay Browne
Now a Wetherspoons
This is the Ritz in Wallsend, one of the many cinemas in the region saved and repurposed by Wetherspoons. IMO, they deserve a huge amount of credit for retaining and incorporating the historic fabric of these buildings rather than clearing them out and starting again.
The old picture house stood here since 1939, but there’s a nice photograph from just before below. It was a set of 2 commercial premises on the ground floor, with a snicket through to the Turner’s
Buildings - a residential row where the actual cinema stood.
This was an ABC cinema, and was opened by their general manager alongside the Mayor of Wallsend in the May. It crammed in 1,622 seats, which is a hefty amount which only goes to demonstrate how confident cinema chains were before the advent of in-home television a couple decades later. The first showing was Gangsters Boy, featuring Jackie Cooper who was later in the Superman films.
Like a ton in the North East it was designed by Percy Browne. He designed cooperatives like that at Springwell but also many a well known cinema. The Wallaw at Blyth as well as the Stockton Globe, Gateshead’s Ritz and the Westgate Road Picture House - now NX. His name certainly deserves great credit.
It remained a cinema until 1962, and like most which weren’t demolished it became a bingo club. Mecca operated it until 2011, and Wetherspoons picked it up in 2015. They’ve retained the entrance but barely any of the cinema interior is intact. A false ceiling mirages its old function, but it does give you hope of what’s above.
Listing Description (if available)
The Ordnance Survey maps shown depict High Street West, first in the 1950s with the second from the 1890s. They showcase the substantial change on the high street from a dense industrial settlement into 20th century modernity.
We see on the 1950s plan the Ritz dominating the town centre with the complex still extant today, though its surroundings still contrast our current understanding. It borders copious pubs both in situ and not such as the Robin Hood, Black Bull and Jolly Sailors. At the rear is an early 20th century school not demolished, adjacent to a number of residential rows now demolished for the Forum.
If we wind back time to the 1890s we see the area well before the Ritz. The cinema site was occupied by Turners Buildings, a set of dwellings accessible through an arch next to the Black Bull. The land north was entirely vacant, which becomes clear if we take back the maps further.
The 1865 Ordnance Survey shows the clear dividing line between the industrial settlement of Carville and wider rurality. It first grew out of the nearby waggonways, collieries and chemical workers with the need for labour cemented. Wallsend at this time was at the Green, bordered by the C Pit and various pit rows on streets still familiar with us today. The two eventually merged by continuous housing developments, and accelerated when the shipyards begun to sprang up on the riverside. As it became a town the required infrastructure was erected too - eventually picture houses, post offices, schools and pubs all settled on the main lane between Newcastle and North Shields naturally.
The Ritz on High Street West after the Wetherspoons refurbishment in the mid 2010s.
The Ritz as it was when operating as a bingo hall in 1863, just a year after repurposing. Unknown original source.
The interior of the Ritz at its peak prior to repurposing. The ground floor has been totally transformed as a pub & restaurant, and the features aren't recognisable today. Unknown original source.