Hi

Anybody have memories / photo of the old Plaza?

The Plaza was a cinema for many years I remember
going as a 10 / 11 year old, to save money we used to "pool" our money - one of us would buy the ticket and then open the emergency exit into an area we called the "tossies" at the back of the Plaza and let the other lads and girls in from our "gang".

We were often chased by the attendent - lovely old man with a torch and no sense of humour. He used to upset the paying public more than we did, with his torch light trying to find us!

Eventually changed to a bingo hall and we became bingo memebers (would 18 year old males do that now?) so that we go there on a Friday & Saturday when there was a group on and we could dance and have beer that was great as a young 18 year old. - I shudder to think what we looked like - beer in one hand and a bingo ticket and pen in the other!

Can't remember if the building is still standing now?

Dave

Dave, here is the cinema thread to peruse.
https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/569987/1.html

The Plaza was knocked down and the land is now part of a builders merchants yard.

Yes, I well remember the Plaza. It seemed just a bit more "upmarket" than some of the bughouses down town. Probably all in the mind! Was always taken upstairs to the Circle rather than the Stalls. I think it was 6d more. Gasp!

Saw Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea there and remember being scared sh*tless by the giant squid (?) If my memory serves me right, wasn't there an organ that rose up from a pit onto the stage at one time ?

I'm sure Chriskay will chime in on this one Dave. He was a projectionist there !

I remember going to The Plaza to see Elvis in Loving You.

Yes, memory serves. A Compton organ, occasionally played by a school mate of mine.
The Plaza was the largest cinema in town with a capacity of 2500, so larger than both the Ritz and Savoy, with 2000 each.

The Plaza.
From "The Silver Screens of Wirral"

Mind's a blank - where exactly was it on Borough Rd ?

Hi Masterbun

The Plaza was between Kingsland Road and Carlton Road - The photo that is shown here I must admit I can't remember it like this but Chris worked there in the 50s.

I think this photo is before Borough road was widened.

Looking from the direction of the shot to the right would have Bloyds Building yard and to the left would have been a furntiure shop, armed forces recruitment center, and the famous Kingsland Cabaret / Restaurant on the corner.

Opposite would have been the Top Twenty Cafe, Grimshaws the newsagent, and my school pals Mum & Dads corner shop that sold everything. Also would have been Bensons the general DIY shop which eventually became Turleys Pub

Approx

Thanks. Didn't go up that part of Borough Rd very often, turning up Balls Rd East to get home.

i remember marching with my granddad on rememberance sundays.we all used to go into the plaza for the service in the 50s.

Spot on Bert.

Went to see Zulu there with a mate John Done his mum worked there
early 60s

Good times

Link to Ivor Buckingham's site showing Plaza Compton under test. Plaza Compton under test
What happened to it ?

I don't know what happened to the organ, unlike wind pipe (church) organs, a lot of electric organs just disappeared off the horizon.

I remember somewhere that the lift mechanism stopped working at some point but I'm sure it continued to be used after that. I am also sure there is a video of the organ being played but that seems to have disappeared off google search now.

The Plaza organ was a wind pipe one. According to "The Silver Screens of Wirral" it consumed 50,000 cu.ft. of air per hour. A quote from the book:
"In order to create the highest quality sound, the organ pipes were enclosed in two large, sound-proof rooms, and to reach the theatre the sound had to pass through wooden louvres which were controlled from the organ keyboard; when closed, they became a solid wall. The cinema was designed with acoustics in mind."
I've no idea what happened to it.
The main problem for me with Birkenhead history is that I left the area in 1956 and never returned.

According to the Cinema Organ Society Journal, Sept. 1977, parts of it went to collector Ron Curtis's Organ Studio in Bolton and the remainder and the console went to a private collector near Altrincham.
The problem with organs is they can be divided into separate parts and can end up in lots of different installations.

Thanks for the interesting link. Did you notice the Rialto console picture in the site's 'Illuminated Surrounds' section? I believe the Plaza and the Rialto both belonged to the Bedford Cinemas group.

Yes, sorry, I was running out of vocabulary.

Traditional church organs are entirely wind powered (apart from the fan - in some cases even this was a manual pump originally). The keyboard and controls are a mixture of mechanical and pneumatic valves and links.

Cinema organs are a mixture of all sorts but the keyboard and controls tend to be electrical. The plaza had a substantial wind pipe bank but it also had percussion instruments.

Sorry, does anyone have any info on the unit four cinema in king st?

As well as showing films, the Plaza had stage shows. I remember going there as a kid in the late 50s / early 60s to see a pantomime - I think it was Aladdin.
And around 1969, I saw the Scottish pop group Marmalade there, who had had a big hit the previous year with the Beatles song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da.
The Plaza was a very impressive place, I think probably second only to the Ritz in Birkenhead as a swanky-looking cinema.

That would be Frank. What miserable bugger he was.

I used to walk past it every day in the mid-60's, going to and from school.
Occasionally the BBC would have a large van parked outside, making recordings for later broadcast on the radio. This often meant that a guest organist was playing - usually quite famous, too.
I also think that there was footage of the organ being played somewhere on the internet. Might have been YouTube, but could also have been a Pathe newsreel.

It sounds extremely unlikely, but I have been told on more than one occasion that Little Richard played there in the late 50s/early 60s... can this be true?

I remember this very well. This was on the bottom of Whitford road my nan used to enjoy many hours in here as it was turned in to a Top Rank bingo hall back in the 80s early 90s.. Always walked pass this to go to my nans who used to live in whitford road..

He played the Tower Ballroom with support from the Beatles in 1962, so not impossible he played elsewhere in the area as well.

Did Liberace ever play at the Plaza or the Tower ballroom? He was ironic, wasn't he. Played the piano all his life-got killed by an organ!!