Greystones Picture Palace, Ecclesall Road Sheffield

This picture was taken July 2004. This building with the red curvy roof, which looks like a section of curled up hosepipe is built on the site of the original greystones cinema.

The Greystones was one of two cinemas on Sheffield's Ecclesall Road. The other being the Star Cinema. It was situated on Ecclesall road just beyond the Greystones Road Junction, The site today, (July 2004).

After the cinema had closed in 1968, it reopened as a Greystones Bingo Club. And downstairs, the ballroom became a nightclub called Shades. This nightclub had the first stereo sound system in Sheffield, which was designed and built by Graham Priestley, who worked there, at nights, as the DJ and MC at the time.

The building survived for another fourteen years, and by the end the nightclub/ballroom was Napoleon's Casino, with the upstairs looking unused and shabby. At the end of 1982 the building had burned down, and was rebuilt into an early version of the current building. It had a large retail shop upstairs, and the New Napoleon's casino downstairs.

Six years later, in August 1988, I moved in opposite the building into one of the large houses on Ecclesall Road. I was there for two and a half years and the Casino was always thriving but the retail unit upstairs was always empty.
In 1989 there was a suspected bomb found outside the Casino door, and all the local TV and loads of police had blocked all the roads off and were at a safe distance, while the bomb squad were dealing with the package. I nearly gave them all a collective heart attack when I threw down a massive plank and rode my motorbike out of the house side passage and into the street. The coppers came over looking quite peeved and made me go the long way around.

You can see old pictures of the area in the collection of photos which are housed in the sheffield local studies collection. Some of the collection is now available on line. Press here for PictureSheffield.com