Abandoned Garston Empire.

A rare surviving example of a ciné-variety house, built in 1915 to show both theatre and silent films to the local Liverpudlian working-class community. With only three working years as a theatre, this gem has survived with its original features and much decoration intact thanks to over forty years of cinema use, and thirty years of bingo use. Designed in 1915, the Garston Empire belongs to a class of transitional theatres that were built across a very short period, coming after the Edwardian theatre boom and before the cinema building boom that followed the Cinema Act 1909. These buildings possess unique qualities as their architects were conscious of the possibilities of continued variety theatre and silent films. This type of entertainment building is therefore a reflection of major changes that affected the social habits of society and comes at a watershed moment in the history of entertainment.