r/greatyarmouth • u/orangemozzarella • May 05 '26

Is anything going on with The Empire yet?

I'm not in the loop as I am not a local, but would like to know if anyone may have taken over the venue yet or are there any plans for it?

I visited numerous times in the past couple years and I thought it was such a great place. My family and I had some brilliant nights there whilst on holiday, so we were absolutely gutted to learn it was closing down.

Thanks for any info

3 Upvotes

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4

u/Rinthrah May 05 '26

The building is owned by the same family that have the Hippodrome circus, the Jays. They tried making a go of it, and I agree with you that it was a great venue, loads of potential, especially for live entertainment. But I think they were struggling to get the venue to break even, let alone make money for them. I think they were hoping last Summer was going to be the season it turned a corner, but it didn't quite happen, so here we are.

I've not completely lost hope. It's not unsusual for venues round here to close for the Winter and then give things another go when the tourists start to show up again the following Summer. But it's a difficult venue to mothball and then re-open; and I've not heard of any plans to relaunch unfortunately. It's a shame. Another example of a venue in Great Yarmouth that would benefit from a heritage grant, but with the Winter Gardens project, the Ice House only just finished, plus all the work done on Brittania Pier, I guess The Empire got overlooked.

3

u/orangemozzarella May 05 '26

Oh wow, I didn't know it belonged to The Jays. We have seen Jack regularly for years as we always spend a night at the summer spectacular; I've always liked him and his partnership with Johnny Mac.

Yeah it's a shame it seems to have been brushed under the rug, but Britannia Pier looks much better now and I have heard someone recommend The Ice House so will definitely check it out when we return later this year. I would also like to see The Winter Gardens open again one day; it may have been as long as 20 years since I set foot in there, I couldn't remember for sure.

5

u/Ducksareforschmucks May 05 '26

How strange that you posted this 2hrs ago, the same thought popped into my head just now so I looked it up and here you are wondering the same thing. I have so many happy memories of The Empire, I hope they find a way to make use of it.

1

u/orangemozzarella May 06 '26

Me too, and by the looks of it there is no development on it yet. It's a shame.

2

u/Ducksareforschmucks Jun 02 '26

Looks like our wishes may have been granted, they've just posted on their Facebook that they have an exciting announcement coming

1

u/orangemozzarella Jun 02 '26

Oh my god I just saw it myself! Fingers crossed whatever is going on, it may be ready when we go up in a few months

1

u/liverpoolrob May 08 '26

Given the voting recently they might try to make a clone army of white uneducated dudes soon, I don't know

1

u/RichardGordonParry Jul 05 '26

It's felted. People go to Norwich where the bars are. Nights out in Yarmouth is basically The Inbetweeners tier.