A former cinema is going under the hammer with a slashed guide price.
The historic Savoy Cinema in Spalding, which, with a 1,500-person seating capacity, was Lincolnshire’s largest cinema when it opened in 1937, is to go up for auction this month.
It has a guide price of £250,000-£270,000, a drop off from the £400,000 asking price when the building went on the market last summer.
Spalding’s former Savoy Cinema
The cinema was converted into a bingo hall after audiences declined in the 1970s, before being damaged extensively by a fire in 2021, which scuppered post-Covid re-opening plans.
It has remained disused since.
Now the 15,000 sq ft cinema, which stands on a 0.7 acre site, is being offered for sale by joint auctioneers SDL Property Auctions and Eddisons Peterborough.
The Regent Bingo building in Westlode Street, Spalding, is going under the hammer
The auctioneers believe the building would be suitable for redevelopment and South Holland District Council has confirmed it would support proposals for a mixed-use commercial and residential scheme on the site.
The Westlode Street property is close to the town centre, within Spalding’s conservation area.
The building is due to appear among around 170 other properties and plots of land in the next online live-streamed auction to be held by SDL Property Auctions, part of Eddisons, on January 30.
The former Regent Bingo Hall and savoy Cinema in Westlode Street, Spalding
Readers previously told LincsOnline what they would like to see the building converted into, with ideas including a music venue and medical centre.
“This was once a splendid building that was a real asset to the town of Spalding and it has been disused and unloved for over three years since the fire,” Andrew Parker, auctioneer and partner at SDL Property Auctions said.
“It would be great to see an imaginative mixed-use scheme bring the site back to life, perhaps retaining the original 1930s art-deco façade.
“Needless to say, the council’s support for a redevelopment scheme makes this a fantastic investment opportunity.”