Anyone remember the Vogue Cinema?

[Jambo Seagull]

As DTG has started a nostalgia fest, what about old cinemas? One of my more perverted ambitions as a 10 year old was to get to see a porn film in this fleapit which I seem to remember was at the junction of Lewes Road and the road going up to the Racecourse. I remember getting very excited reading what was on every week in the Classified section of the Argus each wednesday.

I also remember the Astoria and was it the Embassy or the Curzon on Western Road?

 

[Gwylan]

The Vogue used to be called the Ace, and before that the Gaity (sp?). It was the other side of Lewes Rd from Bear Rd though.

I remember the Continentale as the place that showed the porno films (although I saw Summer Holiday there in 1963).

Both the Embassy and the Curzon were in Western Rd - the Curzon became the Classic before it closed down.

 

[The Large One]

I remember the Vogue. I went to play school (nursery to most of you lot) in the old Lewes Road United Reformed Church, and got taken home past the old cinema. Never went in there, mind.

That farcical roundabout-cum-racetrack next to Sainsbury's (which was where Alrfred Cox & Sons - pillmakers to the stars - and the Lewes Road viaduct were) now bears its name.

 

[The Wookiee]

Was the cinema along Western Road called the Classic?

I remember seeing Star Wars there

 

[chips and gravy]

The Vogue was under the large viaduct that spanned Lewes Road wasn't it? I remember that it was half demolished and part of it stoof for a long time as a bridge to nowhere!

 

[edna krabappel]

Ah, is that why my Dad refers to the Vogue gyratory system around Lewes Road?

Always wondered that....

 

[The Large One]

The Vogue was under the large viaduct that spanned Lewes Road wasn't it? I remember that it was half demolished and part of it stoof for a long time as a bridge to nowhere!

Not quite. The Vogue was on the corner of Lewes Road and Hollingdean Road, at the bottom end of the row of houses which is still there. The viaduct was at the southern end of what is now the Vogue Gyratory, about 50 yards away. There is a mobile phone shop on Lewes Road where the bridge went over the road.

The viaduct was part of a railway line which left Brighton Station, followed the railway line to London Road Station, and then split to go parallel with Hollingdean Road, go over Lewes Road, turn right to go over Hartington Road (there was a viaduct there as well), before going under the hill just before Elm Grove. It came out from under that hill at Kemp Town station, where the Gala Bingo Hall is now.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I remember the Vogue. I went to play school (nursery to most of you lot) in the old Lewes Road United Reformed Church, and got taken home past the old cinema. Never went in there, mind.

That farcical roundabout-cum-racetrack next to Sainsbury's (which was where Alrfred Cox & Sons - pillmakers to the stars - and the Lewes Road viaduct were) now bears its name.

Given the sort of mucky movies that the Vogue became noted for, somebody was enjoying an delightfully ironic moment when deciding to call that particular roundabout & racetrack the Vogue GYRATORY.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I saw Flesh Gordon ( yes Flesh!) at the Vogue and also Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ( Porno version) also at the Vogue

It was a bigger fle pit than Duke of Yorks

 

[Lady Bracknell]

Phew! This sounds suspiciously like "The Confessions of a Mucky Mile-oaker"!

 

[The Large One]

Name: Dave the Gaffer
Occupation: Goat worrier
Chosen Specialised Subject: 1970s porn classics in the company of fleas.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

LOL

Question 1

Who starred in the film..Deep Throat?

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Old cinemas in Brighton

This is a good site to discover all those ex cinemas.

 

[The Large One]

LOL

Question 1

Who starred in the film..Deep Throat?

Peezy. The late Linda Lovelace.

Next.

 

[Man of Harveys]

What an excellent thread. I'm still "reeling" from the loss of the ABC where I saw just about every decent film I ever saw as a nipper. One day they'll kick out that revolting "fun" pub (it must be doing badly?) and turn it back to a cinema or a venue.

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Christ, the ABC's gone? I'm not sure I was aware of that. Is the Astoria still a bingo hall? I saw Jaws there.

 

[London Calling]

No one has mentioned the Cinema in North Road, I managed to see the Midnight and Lemon Boys there in its declining days.

Wasn't the Astoria aka Boots on Queens Street also used as the "ballroom" in Quadathenia
or whatever that filmed was called.

 

[Jambo Seagull]

Is the cinema on North Road next to what is now Boots? It was a bingo hall for years but I seem to recall that it had become a massive sports shop the last time I was down.

 

[chips and gravy]

No one has mentioned the Cinema in North Road, I managed to see the Midnight and Lemon Boys there in its declining days.

Wasn't that the one that is now Burger King? I seem to remember that they showed 3d films there. Also was a good one for 'adult' films

 

[Seagull's Return]

My dad talks about a bomb which hit the Astoria in the war, but didn't go off, and about the time in September 1940 that 59 people (mostly kids) were killed when the Odeon in Kemptown was hit by one which sadly did go off. His family's flat in Egremont Place was damaged by a bomb across the road in Lower Rock Gardens (while he was at the cinema, coincidentally): surprising what Brighton had dished out to it during the war, as it wasn't ever a major target (it got either jettisoned bomb-loads or "tip-and-run" fighter bombers, it was never the target of full-scale raids like London, Portsmouth, etc) - there's no war memorial to the civilian casualties, either, I think, which seems a shame if true.