THEN: Worcester’s Foregate Street below with the Gaumont cinema and theatre in all its glory back in 1951.

The road had been a fashionable 18th-century promenade.

By the 1950s and 1960s the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Buddy Holly were gracing the street to play at the Gaumont which opened in 1935.

The museum and library on the far left, just a part of the large Victoria Institute complex, appeared in 1896 to much fanfare.

This picture was supplied by Worcester City Historic Environment Record.

Worcester News: Worcester’s Foregate Street with the Gaumont cinema and theatre in all its glory back in 1951

NOW: Foregate Street in 2024 below with the Gaumont having long closed in 1974 before being mainly used as a bingo hall.

That finally shut up shop during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and the building remains empty.

The library moved to The Hive in 2012, still leaving a much-valued museum and art gallery in the Foregate Street location.

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