FORMER Ipswich girl Mary Clay (nee Fletcher) who now lives in South Carolina, USA, said: “I remember the boxes at the Regent along the back wall downstairs.

David Kindred

FORMER Ipswich girl Mary Clay (nee Fletcher) who now lives in South Carolina, USA, said: “I remember the boxes at the Regent along the back wall downstairs. I don't remember many people being able to afford them and they had uncomfortable looking chairs in them. When outside lighting came on again, after the Second World War, The Picture House was one of the first to 'light up' with blue and red illuminations. We would go into town just to see the lights. It was exciting to my generation as we hadn't seen public buildings lit up in our lifetime before.”

Jack Keen, of Wallace Road, Ipswich, still has a reminder of The Picture House which was where Boots store is today in Tavern Street, Ipswich.

Jack said: “When The Picture House it was being demolished in 1958 to make way for a branch of Boots, I got permission from the demolition foreman to take photos of the demolition work. In those days I processed my own photographs. Tragically, soon after I had taken the photographs, a man fell from the scaffolding and was killed. My photographs were used in the inquiry. While I was in the foreman's office I saw, lying on the floor, the ornamental spire from the top of the cinema. The foreman said I could have it and it has been a feature of my garden ever since!