AN ICONIC Northwich landmark is finally being taken down piece by piece after 74 years dominating the Northwich skyline.

The Regal Cinema, in London Road, may be an enormous ugly duckling, that’s undeniable, but it’s our ugly duckling.

Those of us who have grown up with that cinema know how magical it was when you walked though the doors to that smell of popcorn and the anticipation of a long-awaited film.

I’m a Northwich girl – I went to Barnton infant and junior schools, Hartford High School and Sir John Deane’s College – and spent so many of my formative years in those hallowed halls of film and fairytale with various friends and boyfriends, though maybe the least said about that the better!

I loved the film poster mural in the entrance hall and wandering up those steps that suddenly opened out into the cavernous auditorium of Screen One, checking the rows to see if there was anyone else in that night that you knew.

Our industrial shed of a cinema building was surprisingly opulent and unexpectedly cosy inside and that screen, now gone forever, was the portal to another world, to many different worlds in fact.

From My Little Pony, He-Man the Movie and Ghostbusters II to Jurassic Park, The Secret Garden and Titanic, and many many more besides, I’ve seen countless classics at the Regal.

As a child I had the romantic notion that the ceiling was covered in crushed velvet, though as a teenager I soon realised it was just painted plasterwork and subtle lighting.

We all knew the Regal was going to be demolished this month – I certainly knew as I’ve written about the redevelopment countless times – but driving past at the weekend and suddenly seeing that Screen One had gone left me feeling floored somehow.

I was hit by a flood of nostalgia as I saw, from the outside, those steps up to the back seats left open to the bleak January air.

The seats may have gone but you can easily work out where you used to sit, and it was a funny feeling to see that cocoon of movie magic and memories exposed like that.

Mind you, it has been much worse watching the sad decline of the hulking building in the years since it closed.

I’m well aware that I’m looking at the Regal through the ubiquitous rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia – let’s face it, if we’d all gone there a bit more instead of betraying it in favour of a shiny new multiplex, it would still be a viable and working cinema.

And it’s certainly not all doom and gloom – whatever we individually think of the various plans for our town there is no doubt that this demolition heralds a brave new dawn for Northwich.

After years of stagnation, maybe things are finally looking up.

But we can’t let our Regal go without penning a lasting tribute – I’ve done my bit and now it’s your turn.

I know there’s plenty of you out there who visited the cinema regularly since it opened in 1939, people who worked there, people who met their other halves there, and I want you to share your stories and memories with us and our readers.

Email me at gbebbington@guardiangrp.co.uk, write to me or pop in at Northwich Guardian, 3 Theatre Court, Northwich, Cheshire, CW9 5HB, ring me on 01606 813624 and even tweet me @GinaBebbington.

It’s over to you Northwich.