Geograph - photograph every grid square

Along the High Street you would naturally find a high street bank or two. There indeed were two to the left of shot (but are now property agents). The Embassy Cinema has outlasted them both. However, the latter used to be the New Christ Church of the Free Church of England, founded just before the outbreak of WWII in May, 1939. As was often the case at the time, the church was styled with an Art Deco frontage, which perhaps was just as well as it did not last too long.

In October, 1948, it was converted to a cinema, helped by renowned movie man Harry Weston. It also had a small cafe adjoining it at times, but the cinema's history was patchy. Several operators took over the running over the post-war years, and the cafe was often closed for a time. In 1965, a licence for bingo was granted and so the site stopped showing films. However, that only lasted for a little over a year and the building closed for some time thereafter.

From 1983 it was run as the Pendle Stairway Cinema, before small independent chain Merlin took over the cinema, returning its name to the Embassy.