Tales of the Urban Explorer: ABC Cinema

‘It’s open’, ‘it’s sealed’; ‘it’s open again’…

These are ubiquitous phrases I hear, and more often than not it’s down to sheer bad luck if you happen to arrive when the current standing is ‘sealed’ rather than ‘open’.

@anidiotexplores had been inside the disused ABC Cinema but not Club 051 which was just a few blocks away. We were here to visit both if possible before the TourBus exploded meaning a probable permanent state of ‘sealed’.

I am not a fan of city centre explores. Firstly, you need to pay to park your car which is fine if there's a guaranteed entrance. If not, you unwittingly handed some cash to the local council and got nothing back in return.

Then there's the issue of people. Look at the cover photo and you will notice swarms of them. The alleged access point for ABC Cinema was down a filth-ridden back street swarming with rats and disease as well as a row of chairs hosting a tribe of 'Hilda Ogden' impersonators.

Source
...'can you imagine 6 Hilda's, all sat, all smoking, all with rollers watching you enter the ABC Cinema? It was a truly terrifying prospect'...

This is Hilda, and while the seated aging ladies were not intent on replacing the real one from Coronation St, they were taking a break from their dull tedious jobs while having a cup of tea and a fag to break up the boring day.

Now getting into ABC involved yours truly getting into a compromising condition that involved, crouching, climbing, crawling horizontally, and avoiding some 'pipe' that was apparently in the way.

The tribe of Hilda's happened to be sat opposite like the judges of 'Strictly Come Dancing' and if they thought you were here to vandalise would call you out with shrill screams of... 'We're calling the police'.

@anidiotexplores was priming me with what we needed to do to win over the 'Hilda's' and make them say…, 'You look like a nice young lad, just go inside and we won't say a thing…'

"So where are these Hilda's?', I asked @anidiotexplores giving him a quizzical look.

"They've are gone to get their rollers done.., let's get the fuck inside", he said already slipping through some rough-edged metal sheeting designed to take off the edges of your fingertips.

This one was truly horizontal and at ground level. I felt I was the lucky one today with only one alarmed look from a passer-by who almost walked into a wall.

…Look where you're going lady, or end up with a squashed snout…

We arrived in a dank-looking basement with @anidiotexplorers frowning at the entrance in puzzlement. Discarded cinema seats strewn about haphazardly.

'The pipe has been moved, it's way easier now than before'

...whatever…, if the ‘pipe’ wants to grow legs and walk somewhere else then I am fine with that as long it stays away....

It could be that the 'pipe' had fallen in love, got married to Mrs. Pipe, and had several babies by now. Good luck with the squawking baby pipe brats I say.

This door was locked but some kind soul had smashed away at the other door creating a lovely entrance. I scrambled through and towards some stairs.

‘Get used to stairs’, came back a voice. ‘There’s a lot of uphill in here’.

No shit, we had climbed one lot only to be faced with another lot.

If there had been coffee laid on it would have been nice, before the next lot of stairs. They were getting somehow... steeper.

I had to check what that acronym was and found it quite easily. Yes, I was in a proper Cinema, my first real one.. that was not going to be a fucking DIY shop in disguise.

Look at those seats, they look like the type you sat on in buses in the 1980s, with that same swirly gaudy pattern.

Entering a cinema is generally a dark affair with only the screen giving you any light. If there was any crap on the floor, you would stand on it. Squashy things were the worst such as Chocolate and Banana skins.

Genuine folding chairs of the highest quality, some slightly damaged, as was the wall and the missing chunks of concrete and paint.

Some things are essential while watching that shit, dull movie. A few swigs of this and you won’t care what’s on show.

The grand curtain was quite tough to shoot. Even my massive light wasn’t coping well with the pitch blackness of ‘ABC Cinema’.

‘BRACKET’ is likely a reference to Hinge&Bracket, a couple of lady explorers who I met recently at a school that was swimming with water.

I am always open to advise, but this one wasn't making a lot of sense.

There were plenty of tunnels within 'ABC Cinema'. Most of them look a little worn just like this one.

@anidiotexplores pauses to check how his lighting system is doing.

It can get full in the ‘ABC Cinema’, and you might draw the short straw and have to sit on the less desirable off-white seating made of slimy stone.

Finding yet another corridor we descended in search of the stage area.

'Twister' was a little cheesy; another clichéd Hollywood Blockbuster wannabe film.

Oh come on.., a shopping trolley... in here?

It was messy but there was plenty of old décor hanging around that would not look out of place in ‘BioShock’.

At the original entrance point; you could walk out of the door but then would be faced with a barricaded outer one.

I made my way to the genuine gold-plated curtains intent on having a good look.

Someone has had a good go at burning the left side; perhaps they are made of non-inflammable material?

Right out of the nineteen-twenties, lovely and original.

Was there supposed to be seats here, or just upstairs?

Damn right, I was feeling this way too.

Back up the reception area and in search of anything we might have missed.

I wanted a few more shots of those uncomfortable seats, what else do you see in a cinema?

Maybe a few of these hanging around.

The projector room; it was dingy up there and more derelict than the rest of the building.

Locked away forever, and the key is gone. I know how those convicts feel now in Mediterranean jails.

Escaping was easier than entering. At least it was all downhill, or should I say… down-steps.

Danger and Private, as a description for the same room? It doesn’t sound quite right.

It was the spare room. If anything breaks, you come here to find a replacement that's probably broken too.

‘Solid State’ is a word I saw often on electronics as a kid. It usually meant cheap and nasty and made from Binatone.

I don’t remember the ‘Telethon’. By 1988 I was barely watching conventional TV, it was all Satellite that you tried not to pay for.

For cars or for projection units?

I did make it, but the comfy sofas had been trashed and I could not even sit down to contemplate what those Hilda's were going to do on my very soon, exit.

There was no need, as the Hilda’s were gone. Had they been sacked for smoking too much, or taking long lunch breaks to restore their tight rollers?

We left feeling lucky, fulfilled and Hilda free.

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