THIS photograph from the archives records the final days of Blackburn’s last live theatre.
The Grand Theatre was being demolished in 1958 - two years after the venue on Jubilee Street had closed.
Originally the Amphitheatre it was soon renamed as the Princes Theatre then the New Princes Theatre before becoming the Grand in 1928. It could seat an audience of just over 1,000 and had eight dressing rooms and an orchestra pit.
Although it changed from live shows to the newly popular cinema in the early 1930s, by 1933 it was a live venue and for the next 20 years hosted some of the leading musical and variety performers of the day including George Formby and Ted Ray.
The Grand was almost next door to the much larger Palace Theatre which had become a cinema and the site is now the home of the Blackburn telephone exchange.
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