Empress Cabaret Club (Stockport)

The Empress Cabaret Club was in Manchester Road, Heaton Chapel, north Stockport, Cheshire and had opened on Wednesday, December 9, 1959.

Advertised in The Manchester Evening News of Tuesday, December 1, 1959 as
Members' Notice Empress Cabaret Club Manchester Road, Stockport. Telephone HEA 3330, Opening Wed., Dec 9 Seven Nights A Week. Keith Marsden invites application for membership at this Fabulous Club presenting All-Star Cabaret Dancing Top-Class Wrestling Sporting Personalities Membership Fee : Gent, £1 per year. Lady, 10/- per year. Strictly Membership Only.

It had opened as The Empress Cinema on Friday, May 6, 1938 with 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' staring actor Leslie Howard. The cinema was designed by J. Brian Cutts.

There was a field called Ash Farm, a farmhouse and field at the junction of Manchester Road and Denby Lane, owned by one Harry Hitchen. His ambitious grandson reckoned that it was time Heaton Chapel had a picture house, so on Friday, May 6, 1938 the seven-hundred-seater Empress Cinema opened.

The Empress Cinema closed on Saturday, April 18, 1959 with 'Rock-A-By-Baby' staring Jerry Lee Lewis and opened as The Express Cabaret Club on Wednesday, December 9, 1959. Only part of the cinema was opened and the club was run by Manchester City footballer Keith Marsden (b. Thursday, October 4, 1934, Matlock, Derbyshire, England d. Sunday, November 30, 1986, South Africa in a car crash).

In May 1962 lead guitarist Pete Quinn (b. Sunday, May 24, 1942, Didsbury, Manchester 20, Lancashire, England d. Thursday, October 22, 2020, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England of COVID-19) played his début gig with Freddie and the Dreamers (formed in Mar 1962) as stand in for bassist Pete Burrell (b. Peter Birrell, Friday, May 9, 1941, Wythenshawe 22 (or 23), Manchester, Lancashire, England). Quinn was replacing lead guitarist Ernie Molloy (b. Ernest Molloy, Friday, May 23, 1941, St Mary's Hospital?, High Street, Burnage, Manchester 19, Lancashire, England).

In May 1967 the club closed for a while after a fire. The Empress Club later changed its name to The Poco-A-Poco which opened on Tuesday, December 3, 1968. The Poco A Poco closed in 1983 and became Chesters until May 1987 and then was demolished in June 1987 and became The Hinds Head Pub.

info courtesy John H Warburg  March 2025