A trip to the Metrocentre flicks in 1993
A DAY AT THE UCI CINEMA 25 YEARS AGO
WE step back 25 years to a day at the Metrocentre in Gateshead.
Our photographs from the Chronicle archive show the shopping complex’s UCI cinema in June, 1993.
Newly-released films back then included Jurassic Park, Last Action Hero and Sleepless In Seattle.
The UCI was part of the general move from high-street cinemas to the multiplex experience were multiple films were shown within one premises.
Throw in a giant bucket of popcorn, and an industrial-size Coke and you were set for two hours of prime entertainment.
The UCI arrived as part of the gradual development and expansion of the Metrocentre.
After five years in the planning, Sir John Hall and Gateshead Council launched the proposed new retail development in 1984.
Two years later, in April 1986, the first curious shoppers wandered into the 250,000 sqft Red Mall - phase one of the project.
Phase two, the 110,000 sqft Green Mall opened its doors six months later when the Metrocentre was officially opened by Environment Minister, Nicholas Ridley.
The 10-screen UCI cinema arrived in 1987 as part of phase three - the Blue and Yellow malls - which also saw the bus station, Blue multi-storey car park and railway station open.
Today, cinema-goers at the Metrocentre flock to the stateof-the-art Odeon (a name with Gateshead connections dating back to 1944 when the Black’s Regal picture house on the town’s High Street was bought up by the national chain).
The Metrocentre Odeon was opened in 2010 in the Yellow Mall, on the site of the former MetroLand funfair after a major redevelopment.
We reported at the time how it was “the first cinema in the region to host an IMAX system in which the viewer is wrapped in digital surround sound with pictures”.
Coincidentally, anybody fancying a visit to the Odeon today can check out the new Jurassic Park movie, Fallen Kingdom, 25 years on from the first film.