THE quick pace of Southampton's modern redevelopment often means that memories of former days rapidly fade as new construction work changes the face of the city.

At the moment Shirley is seeing rapid transformation as a new supermarket takes shape to take the place of the present Sainsbury's shop in Park Street.

It was in this road that the former Regent cinema once stood - close to the site now occupied by the present shop - and memories of this old picture palace were recalled by readers following the recent Hampshire Heritage feature on another Shirley cinema, the Rialto.

There were two successive cinemas in Park Street. The first opened in 1913 and was called the Cinema Hall, before undergoing a quick name-change to become the Regent.

It was about this time that the then well-known local bandleader, Gil Hume, played the violin to entertain audiences between film presentations. The cinema was eventually rebuilt and officially re-opened on August 1, 1932 when the films The Dove, starring Dolores del Rio, and Ladies of the Jury, with Edna May Oliver, were the main attractions.

The cinema had 1,300 seats, arraniiged theatre-style in stalls and a balcony, and had two entrances - one in Park Street and one around the corner in Shirley High Street.

The Regent, which mainly showed second-run films, was extremely popular and even had a special glass canopy where patrons could shelter while they queued to buy their tickets.

After three decades, dwindling audience numbers finally sounded the death knell for the Regent.

Like the Ritz cinema in Bitterne, which had closed its doors for the last time a couple of months earlier, it was announced that the curtain would come down on the Shirley cinema in September 1961.

Laughs and thrills made our Saturday mornings

SOUTHAMPTON'S Regent cinema, which once stood in Shirley, was a popular place for many local people, including Pamela Humphrey of Millbrook, who has fond memories of her visits to the pictures.

As a child, Pamela, whose surname was then Bowles, belonged to the Rialto's children's club, and she has kept her membership card to this day.

The Rialto is no more after demolition bulldozers moved in on the site to tear down the premises to make way for a new development.

Mrs Humphrey said: "I am very saddened to see the demise of the Rialto cinema building in Shirley Road and, although it closed many years ago, the structure remained, so it was always the Rialto in my mind's eye as I passed. But now it has gone forever.

"I lived within five minutes walk of both the Rialto and Atherley cinemas and it was such a regular thing to go to the pictures, where beautiful Hollywood stars came to life and brightened the lives of ordinary people, especially during the war years.

"As a child, I belonged to the Rialto cinema's club for boys and girls and loved Saturday mornings when we used to watch Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello and the Three Stooges, all comedy films.

"At the end there was always Flash Gordon and his adventures in space.

"This was a weekly serial that was so exciting.''

Printed on the cinema's membership card were three promises that the youngsters had to keep if they wanted to be a part of the club.

Written on the card was: "I promise to tell the truth, to help others and to obey my parents.

"I promise to be thoughtful of old folks, to be kind to animals and always play the game.

"I promise to try and make this Great Country of ours a better place to live in.''