Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 19 April 2021

DEMOLITON WORKS have started to take place on Hinckley’s former Regent Cinema and bingo hall.

The demolition works will see the rear and top of the building demolished, to convert and extend the existing building into new shops and flats.

The works on the much-loved infamous Lancaster Road building first started to be carried out on the week commencing the 22 March, by Nuneaton-based demolition firm, AR Demolition Limited.

The ground floor of the space, last used as a tearoom and bar, will be converted into space for retail units, following the Borough Council giving planners the thumbs up to go through with the plans.

The dome atop the building will be fully removed, so that the new flats can be built at the top of the former cinema.

Back in 2014, Iceland Foods approached the owner of The Regent in a bid to demolish the main hall to the cinema, which they agreed to, to create more car parking spaces for the supermarket chain.

Since its last lease of life in 2018 as Harry’s Bar, the space sat both empty and derelict, gaining dust and becoming a regularly targeted building by vandals who had hurled bricks through the windows.

Surprisingly, whilst this is an Art-Deco inspired building, it was not Grade listed, which is why the works were able to start straight away, without any permission from any specialists.

Displeasure has been shown by Hinckley residents at the new demolition works on a local Hinckley nostalgia group, Hinckley District Past and Present.

Donna Hendrie, who is a member of the local history group, said: “A crying shame, such a beautiful work of Art-Deco”.

Another resident, Terry St. Clair, added: “All these beautiful grand palaces lost. So many memories.”

Photo gallery

We have pieced together a photo gallery below of original photographs taken of the demolition works being carried out over the past few weeks.