Premier Theatre, Hertford

iew of The Premier Theatre, Market Street, with actresses in the doorway and film posters displayed outside. The Premier was the rival to the People’s Electric Theatre until it was purchased by C. E. Sheppard. It seems that the Premier was slightly larger, with a capacity for around 220 people plus an orchestra pit. The theatre showed live entertainment as well as film and ran until 1920 when the theatre was bought and re-opened as the Popular Picture Playhouse. In the early 1930s it was re-fitted for sound to accommodate the new ‘talkies’ and was renamed The Regent. Despite another decade of success, the cinema finally closed its doors for good in 1943.