The colourful past of Cleethorpes’ Coliseum Picture Theatre from cinema to Baton Rouge and beyond

The Coliseum building on Cleethorpes’ High Street has been in use since 1914 and has housed a variety of enterprises from boxing matches to market stalls and nightclubs.

Today, the building still carries remnants of its roots, with JD Wetherspoon naming the pub and eatery The Coliseum Picture Theatre after taking over the building a decade ago.

Going back to the beginning on May 30, 1914, the venue was once the rival of nearby cinemas Royal and the Empire, and was popular with youngsters on a Saturday afternoon who enjoyed watching silent masterpieces like Charlie Chaplin, Tarzan or Elmo the Mighty.

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The Cleethorpes Musical Festival, held each year also used these cinemas as venues for the elocution and reading teams competition classes.

During the war years, it saw use as a boxing hall for troops of the Manchester Regiment. In 1919, the Coliseum was taken over by the Cleethorpes Empire Company, with an unusual alteration of moving the screen from one end of the cinema to the other. It was re-opened in 1920 – the date clearly visible at the very top facade of the building.

Running as a popular cine haunt, it closed its doors in 1927; subsequently seeing use as The British Legion Club, an auction room, dance hall, cafe and markets. For a brief period of time, it was home to Woolworths while its premises were readied across the road.

1970s

It opened in June 1977 as an indoor market. The new owners, John Wooster and his wife Irene, purchased it for around £25,000 and were hoping the 16 stalls selling a variety of goods would offer a good service and good value for money.

However just a month later, a fire completely gutted the High Street venue, leaving stallholders facing bills of thousands of pounds. None of the stallholders were insured and most had lost virtually every penny they had put into the venture.

CID officers and forensic experts searched through what was left of the market hall. The roof of the single-storey building was completely taken off and nothing but four smoke-blackened walls were left at the top end of what used to be the old cinema.

Investigations subsequently revealed it was arson which had started the blaze, with CID officers believing that someone had hid inside the building before it closed, and then deliberately started the fire before escaping through a rear fire exit. The indoor market was to reopen almost a year after it was completely gutted by fire. Owner Mr Wooster, of Cumberworth, near Alford, spent around £40,000 refurbishing it.

By 1982 it was an amusement arcade, and in 1985 it became Arthur’s snooker hall. In 1986 it once again found life as an indoor market known as Some Place Else.

Baton Rouge

In 1997, a £1-million-plus deal with Bass brewery saw Cleethorpes man Mark Tomlinson sell the business he built with his own hands in a massive gamble less than two years earlier.

Mr Tomlinson had made his fortune almost overnight at the Baton Rouge bar which he designed and built. He had originally bought the old Cleethorpes Coliseum, boarded-up and crumbling down, around 1994 turning it into a laid-back live music restaurant for the over-25s. Baton Rouge boasted an upstairs seating area and bar and the open plan viewing area directly over the dance floor.

The early Baton Rouge in the late ’90s featured a salmon pink outside with lurid patterned carpets. Thankfully, a refurbishment in the 2000s saw it given a cream and purple makeover – although several more paint variations followed. Many revellers on the upper floor enjoyed watching people arrive into the club and dance floor below. Around the upper floor was seating areas and another bar.

However, Baton Rouge was also plagued by unexplained incidents, convincing management the place was haunted. Doors slammed at night, bottles fell off shelves, lights were switched on – and rumours abounded of a ghostly lady who floated up and down.

Amishi

In 2008, a major refurbishment took place aimed at curbing the problem of under-age drinking. The name was changed from Baton Rouge to Amishi, which opened on September 4, 2008. it took more than 100 skips to strip out the interior of the former Baton Rouge, and almost £1-million was spent on revamping it into an entertainment hotspot, capable of holding more than 1,000 customers.

Celebrity Callum Best attended the opening evening and planning permission had been previously granted for a raft of changes, including a rooftop terrace for smokers. The revamped club aimed to lead the fight against underage drinking by installing a credit card-style swipe ID system, loaded with offers and other information.

The entire layout of the club also changed to private booths overlooking a new purpose-built stage and dance floor, with a giant chandelier as the centrepiece. Upstairs, dramatic lighting and large ceiling to floor drapes were the focal parts of the main hall. Externally the façade was given a spruce up to enhance the decorative plasterwork in a striking black and white hue.

It regularly booked television and singing stars to appear at its VIP nights, including soap star Jamie Lomas aka Warren Fox from Hollyoaks, Will Mellor who starred as Jambo in Hollyoaks and Gaz in Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, Ricky Whittle aka Pc Calvin Valentine in Hollyoaks, EastEnders actor and former model Scott Maslen, superstar vocalist Kelly Llorenna and Katherine Kelly, from Coronation Street, EastEnders’ Steve McFadden aka Phil Mitchell, Simon Webbe, from Blue, and TOWIE’S Mark Wright to name a few!

In November 2008, the nightclub was nominated for a Civic Restoration Award. George Bullen commented: “The careful use of stained glass imagery maintains the Art Deco theme, the whole frontage cleverly combining the needs of modern customers with the ambience and ethos of former times.

“It is well thought out and well executed. What a joy to see this massive effort to give it a new lease of life, and hopefully help rejuvenate this part of our town.”

In June 2009, the legendary Bags’ Ball club night was relaunched after the demolition of the Winter Gardens venue and two months later it was joined by Disco Inferno nights which had previously been held at The Pier. A new rooftop bar was opened in September that year, saving revellers from trekking back downstairs for a pint. The rooftop could hold a maximum of 230 people fitted with several chairs and tables.

Amishi also only served alcohol in plastic bottles and “glasses” but in February 2013, the nightclub that brought celebrities to Cleethorpes was on the market, with an asking price of £400,000. Measuring 8,400 square feet, the club had three bars, two dance floors, two DJ booths and of course the rooftop terrace.

And just a few weeks later, national pub chain Wetherspoon’s declared a specific interest in the venue. They officially exchanged contracts in October that year.

The Coliseum once again!

It was revealed at the end of March 2014 that a new Wetherspoon’s pub would open in place of Amishi in July of the same year. The pub chain was granted planning permission to convert the old Amishi nightclub into a family restaurant.

A spokeswoman for JD Wetherspoon said the pub would be called The Coliseum Picture Theatre – its name when it first opened as a cinema. Other planned alterations included replacing the front windows with summer folding doors, with the venue expected to create up to 50 jobs.

The £1.7 million transformation resulted in two large bars and restaurant areas, as well as a rooftop terrace, and an open kitchen. Adorned with local pictures and art, including a huge Cleethorpes Pier mural which greets customers on the first floor, and a Roman statue.

The JD Wetherspoons venue specialises in real ales, serving a wide range of beers, including those from local and regional brewers, and frequently takes part in regular real ale festivals.