WORCESTER'S old St John's Cinema building was in the news again a fortnight ago with the latest plans being to knock it down (or what remains of it) and turn the site into a mix of shops and flats.

Which will be sad, but in some ways inevitable, because the building has been boarded up since a fire almost 10 years ago.

It was then a nightclub, one of several reincarnations the property has had after closing as a cinema in 1959.

In fact, St John's Cinema is Worcester's oldest surviving original cinema building.

Opened by the Goodsall brothers on the site of the Old King's Head pub in July 1914, it was hailed at the time as a technological marvel.

The great occasion came in 1929 when the Godsalls secured the first 'talkie' for the city, The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson, and the crowds were so great they stretched 200 yards down to the Bull Ring for the evening performances.

After a fire in 1939, the cinema was taken over by the Odeon group, and finally closed in 1959, falling victim to the rise of television.

In the early 80s, local builder John Pratt turned it into Tanya's nightclub and later it became Zig Zag, but today its boogie nights are long gone.