I Remember When With Milton Rendell

Do you remember when there was the Regent Theatre on James Street, Guildford? The cinema closed in 1966 and has had a few different faces since then. Today it is the Museum of Natural History and you would have seen it with the Dinosaur at the front, a popular visit for tourist who come to the area. Other titles for the old theatre have been the Garne Hall which was used for dancing (1980’s) and at one stage was the Slovenian Centre. The building was used for bingo on a Thursday night for a number of years and I remember mum loved her Thursday night bingo. Not long ago talking with my sister Janet she mentioned that one of the favourite haunts for the young guys was next door at the Guildford Home Made Centre locally called the HMC. Janet told me that the young guys in the area liked to hang around the shop front and apparently used to nick a few things mainly smokes. I remember it as being a bakery that made some great cakes and milk shakes in the seventies. This must have been a popular hangout on a Friday or Saturday night and remember also across the road was and still is Alfred’s Kitchen only a short walk to either the Stirling Arms or Guildford Hotel. I guess in many ways it was the entertainment centre of town for a while. Also remember the current shopping centre wasn’t there a few shops only one of which was the fish and chip shop. It was here you could buy what they called “scrappies” which were the scraps of food the shop would sell. Certainly not permitted today though. I know some people used to duck around to our family bakery opposite the Rose and Crown and buy a tank loaf, pull out the middle of the loaf and fill it full of chips. Simple but great times on a Friday night.