REGARDING the article about the Hippodrome (Citizen, January 27). I don't remember it as a cinema only as a live theatre where I have watched many a good play.

I wonder if your reader was perhaps thinking about the Prince's Theatre, in Tithebarn Street, which used to be next to the Regent Ballroom and is now the Bus Station.

There used to be a small sweet shop on the opposite side of the street that sold meat and potato pies when the performances were over. I think they used to cost two pennies, old money, and they tasted super. The other cinema with an entrance in Tithebarn Street was the Empire. Many a Saturday I have bought half a penny-worth of parched peas and gone to the morning children's film show. It used to cost us a penny to 'sit in the gods' to see the on-going feature of Flash Gordon. Happy days.

Mrs M Bennett,

Leyton Avenue,

Leyland

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.