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The cleared site from Bridge Street to the Palace Theatre, soon to be demolished.
The last hopes of saving Burnley's Palace Theatre have faded, so it's to be farewell to a familiar landmark and welcome to another familiar name. The demolition men move in within a few weeks, and down will come the Palace to be replaced by a new Woolworth's store. The already demolished block next to the Palace will include a new Boots store, among other occupiers. The last hopes of saving the Palace lay with The Victorian Society, who recently saved the Grand Theatre at Blackpool. But a society member, who visited Burnley, described the Palace as "not outstanding architecturally" and the society will not pursue the case for its preservation further. The only other hope lay with local theatre groups, but these do not feel the building would meet their needs. Mr. H. Critchley Nightingale, manager of the Highcliffe players said "It would be a dead duck as a local theatre. It would be far too big for us".
When the Palace goes, the curtain will fall on a long chapter of Burnley history. It was built in record time; the land being bought, the plans prepared and the building completed and opened - all in 1907. It cost £13,000 and seated 2,300 people, and in its chequered career housed vaudeville, silent pictures, "talkies" and almost inevitably, bingo. In the theatre's heyday, music hall concerts were broadcast throughout the British Empire, but changing fashions brought changing fortunes, and the building has since seen one short-lived use after another. The development which will also include some office property, will be bisected by a Mall, linking St. James's Street to the Market Square.