The Kinematograph Year Book for 1914 has a “Supplementary List of Provincial Picture Theatres” which lists only the Market Theatre under Aylesbury. There were 600 seats and the proprietors were Aylesbury Electric Theatre Company.
The framework for the Odeon’s roof is (mostly) in place. This is almost the same angle as the other aerial view of the Odeon before the wrecker’s ball set to work on it 30+ years later.
Also in this shot are: the New Victoria (as it would have been at the time) showing very clearly the Thornton Road element which had the restaurant at ground level and the ballroom above; the white domes of the Alhambra are beyond the New Vic; and the white façade of the principal entrance to the Prince’s Theatre is beyond the domes (the theatre auditorium is the large building practically at Manchester Road.
The screen end of the Morley Street Picture House’s auditorium is visible, backing against the rear of the Alhambra’s stage.
The cinema closed early in WW2 and was used for storage. When it reopened on 19 September 1947 it was as a repertory theatre. Martin Tapsell in “Memories of Buckinghamshire’s Picture Palaces” reports it traded as the County Theatre from May 1948 to March 1954.
The aerial view also shows (to the left) the Robert Cromie 1936 extension to C H Wright’s 1925 auditorium, with splayed walls and a new stage house. The stage was 23ft deep and 51ft wide with a number of dressing rooms. The tunnel-like feature on the roof of the extension, leading away to the heating/ventilation plant, starts above where a large ventilation grille is incorporated into the sloping ceiling, above the proscenium, between the splay walls.
Up to 1971, the stage was used for occasional amateur and professional live shows.
Cromie was also remodelled the (faux-windowed) street façade. Wright’s original was lower (about the height of the gutters on the building to the left) and in a ‘Greek’ style with two columns in the stepped recess.
This gets more puzzling. Google Streetview on The Esplanade clearly shows the mock-Tudor gable of the cafe and entrance to the Lounge. It has been built out to the pavement at ground and first-floor levels and is called the “Loop” bar and grill; the address of which is 15 The Esplanade, YO15 2PB. The Forum amusement centre (exactly as in the photo in this listing) is the next property but one, further along The Esplanade to the north.
The photo is from August 1928. “Pennies By The Sea” indicates that the auditorium/concert hall was a cinema showing talkies in 1932. The Lounge is not listed in the KYB for 1931. “Pennies By The Sea” also says that the hall received its first cinematograph license in 1912 and was mentioned in the Bioscope Magazine of 7th November 1912; but there seems to be no mention of this hall in KYB for 1914. Further research is needed on this one.
The Forum development apparently contains the building that was the auditorium of the Lounge cinema which had entrances both on The Esplanade and at 22 The Promenade. The latter is now Liberty’s at postcode YO15 2QD. The 1954 Kinematograph Year Book listed the Lounge as an 870 seat house with a screen measuring 14ft by 12.5ft in a proscenium 32 ft wide. It had a cafe on The Esplanade side where the façade was mock-Tudor.
The Kinematograph Year Book (KYB) 1914 lists it as the Electric Palace in Rotherham with 1000 seats and operated by Parkgate & Denaby Electric Theatres Ltd.
KYB 1931 lists it as the Electra Palace in Parkgate operated by Heeley & Amalgamated Cinemas Ltd and wired for sound.
KYB 1942 and 1947 call it the Electra in Rotherham, indicating Parkgate area, and (in 1947) still run by Heeley & Amalgamated Cinemas with 714 seats.
KYB 1954 calls it the Electra, but now listed under Rawmarsh with the Aldwarke Road address; ownership and seating are the same as before.
The “Picture Pavilion” is a rare listing in the Kinematograph Year Book 1931. Sound was installed but it was still a “disc” system. Perhaps the works in April/June 1933 involved installing equipment for sound-on-film. “Western Electric” is indicated in KYB 1942, 1947 and 1954.
The Albion Assembly Rooms were on Norfolk Street. The hall was in “an addition to the Albion Hotel” built in the form of three ground-floor shops (with basements) over all of which was a hall 84ft6 long, 36ft wide and ~30ft high. (The last figure seems large, but is probably quoted for a beamed ceiling rising to an apex.)
It means that the Albion Assembly Rooms are another venue for film exhibition in North Shields and, from the KYB entries, was in business in 1914 but closed by 1931.
Ramsden Street was Huddersfield’s cinema alley, with the Theatre Royal, Picture House (shown above) and the Hippodrome (later to be Cannon; and further down the street to the right in the photo). In October 1957 the latter two were acquired by the Essoldo circuit. The Picture House retained its name, but the other cinema (called the Tudor at that time) was renamed Essoldo.
From conversion to a cinema in the 1920s to closure and demolition, the projection room was located at the rear of the stalls. During the 1960s fitting out for 70 mm screenings, a section of architectural trim under the front of the balcony was removed to eke out an extra bit of height on the picture.
A 1947 aerial view (elsewhere) captures the full shape of the white faience entrance feature and of the cappings to the two vertical features in the back wall (all decapitated in the era of bingo/decline).
It is interesting to compare this with the similar b/w photos. This, colour, view shows how the rebuilding after the 1932 fire left intact the front block (foyers, stairs and projection room) and rear block (stage and dressing rooms); and a much wider auditorium was (re)built in between.
The blue-ish, two-storey building on the right was tagged on by ABC when this building served as their Didsbury/Manchester studios. The chequered façade of light and darker blues is an echo of the style adopted for their make-over/rebuild of the Hippodrome Blackpool (reopened as the ABC Blackpool).
The building as council offices (June 2013). It’s clear that the original hall (catholic chapel, with full height windows, was extended forward to Dalton Square when the terrace was erected. There are no indications of the former cinema use (apart from the roof vent for the former auditorium?).
The “Curtains!!!” (1983) listing mentions the arched, side elevation, windows being unblocked for the office conversion in 1980/81. This photo shows that the arched windows were only partially blocked, leaving small, oblong windows.
The following information and text is from the entry for the Hippodrome, Lancaster in “Curtains!!!” (1982):
1799 – opened as a Roman Catholic chapel.
1859 – use changed to a Temperance Hall.
1902 – converted to become the Hippodrome theatre.
1981 – converted local authority offices.
“The interior was completely reconstructed in 1931 as a cinema with one balcony and a small stage incorporated within the auditorium. Ashlar front to Dalton Square, which forms the end of a handsome terrace of houses. The side walls show the arched windows of the former chapel/temperance-hall. In 1980/81 the interior was gutted for offices, the façade restored and the arches in the side elevation unblocked and windows inserted.”
G J Mellor’s “Cinemas of Bradford” gives the seating capacity as 650, when first opened; reducing later to 476. KYB for 1942 and 1947 give 547 seats; and KYB 1954 gives 476 (the result of installing cinemascope?).
As the 1934 aerial photo shows, the location on Legrams Lane was rather isolated, with few houses in immediate proximity.
Also in the photo, it looks as though the conversion to sound involved knocking through the wall behind the screen and constructing a speaker/horn chamber on the outside (a technique used also at the Grange cinema).
CORRECTION
The Kinematograph Year Book for 1914 has a “Supplementary List of Provincial Picture Theatres” which lists only the Market Theatre under Aylesbury. There were 600 seats and the proprietors were Aylesbury Electric Theatre Company.
The hospital’s railings on Anlaby Road would have gone for munitions during WW2 (see the 1952/53 ground view of the bombed Cecil).
On the corner across from the Cecil’s (yet to be built) entrance is a shop topped with a spire/turret. It’s still there as a café/bar.
The large white-façaded building was The Mariners' Hospital. The post-war Cecil sits on its grounds.
The framework for the Odeon’s roof is (mostly) in place. This is almost the same angle as the other aerial view of the Odeon before the wrecker’s ball set to work on it 30+ years later.
Also in this shot are: the New Victoria (as it would have been at the time) showing very clearly the Thornton Road element which had the restaurant at ground level and the ballroom above; the white domes of the Alhambra are beyond the New Vic; and the white façade of the principal entrance to the Prince’s Theatre is beyond the domes (the theatre auditorium is the large building practically at Manchester Road.
The screen end of the Morley Street Picture House’s auditorium is visible, backing against the rear of the Alhambra’s stage.
The cinema closed early in WW2 and was used for storage. When it reopened on 19 September 1947 it was as a repertory theatre. Martin Tapsell in “Memories of Buckinghamshire’s Picture Palaces” reports it traded as the County Theatre from May 1948 to March 1954.
The aerial view also shows (to the left) the Robert Cromie 1936 extension to C H Wright’s 1925 auditorium, with splayed walls and a new stage house. The stage was 23ft deep and 51ft wide with a number of dressing rooms. The tunnel-like feature on the roof of the extension, leading away to the heating/ventilation plant, starts above where a large ventilation grille is incorporated into the sloping ceiling, above the proscenium, between the splay walls.
Up to 1971, the stage was used for occasional amateur and professional live shows.
Cromie was also remodelled the (faux-windowed) street façade. Wright’s original was lower (about the height of the gutters on the building to the left) and in a ‘Greek’ style with two columns in the stepped recess.
This gets more puzzling. Google Streetview on The Esplanade clearly shows the mock-Tudor gable of the cafe and entrance to the Lounge. It has been built out to the pavement at ground and first-floor levels and is called the “Loop” bar and grill; the address of which is 15 The Esplanade, YO15 2PB. The Forum amusement centre (exactly as in the photo in this listing) is the next property but one, further along The Esplanade to the north.
The photo is from August 1928. “Pennies By The Sea” indicates that the auditorium/concert hall was a cinema showing talkies in 1932. The Lounge is not listed in the KYB for 1931. “Pennies By The Sea” also says that the hall received its first cinematograph license in 1912 and was mentioned in the Bioscope Magazine of 7th November 1912; but there seems to be no mention of this hall in KYB for 1914. Further research is needed on this one.
The Forum development apparently contains the building that was the auditorium of the Lounge cinema which had entrances both on The Esplanade and at 22 The Promenade. The latter is now Liberty’s at postcode YO15 2QD. The 1954 Kinematograph Year Book listed the Lounge as an 870 seat house with a screen measuring 14ft by 12.5ft in a proscenium 32 ft wide. It had a cafe on The Esplanade side where the façade was mock-Tudor.
Google “Pennies By The Sea”.
This really is an enigmatic cinema.
The Kinematograph Year Book (KYB) 1914 lists it as the Electric Palace in Rotherham with 1000 seats and operated by Parkgate & Denaby Electric Theatres Ltd.
KYB 1931 lists it as the Electra Palace in Parkgate operated by Heeley & Amalgamated Cinemas Ltd and wired for sound.
KYB 1942 and 1947 call it the Electra in Rotherham, indicating Parkgate area, and (in 1947) still run by Heeley & Amalgamated Cinemas with 714 seats.
KYB 1954 calls it the Electra, but now listed under Rawmarsh with the Aldwarke Road address; ownership and seating are the same as before.
Straight cross the street from the Cinema House, property is being demolished in preparation for building the Regent (later Gaumont) on that site.
The “Picture Pavilion” is a rare listing in the Kinematograph Year Book 1931. Sound was installed but it was still a “disc” system. Perhaps the works in April/June 1933 involved installing equipment for sound-on-film. “Western Electric” is indicated in KYB 1942, 1947 and 1954.
The “thought” is wrong. See the overview page.
The Albion Assembly Rooms were on Norfolk Street. The hall was in “an addition to the Albion Hotel” built in the form of three ground-floor shops (with basements) over all of which was a hall 84ft6 long, 36ft wide and ~30ft high. (The last figure seems large, but is probably quoted for a beamed ceiling rising to an apex.)
It means that the Albion Assembly Rooms are another venue for film exhibition in North Shields and, from the KYB entries, was in business in 1914 but closed by 1931.
Ramsden Street was Huddersfield’s cinema alley, with the Theatre Royal, Picture House (shown above) and the Hippodrome (later to be Cannon; and further down the street to the right in the photo). In October 1957 the latter two were acquired by the Essoldo circuit. The Picture House retained its name, but the other cinema (called the Tudor at that time) was renamed Essoldo.
ODEONesque, you omitted trolley-bus wires!
From conversion to a cinema in the 1920s to closure and demolition, the projection room was located at the rear of the stalls. During the 1960s fitting out for 70 mm screenings, a section of architectural trim under the front of the balcony was removed to eke out an extra bit of height on the picture.
A 1947 aerial view (elsewhere) captures the full shape of the white faience entrance feature and of the cappings to the two vertical features in the back wall (all decapitated in the era of bingo/decline).
My 1960s photos of the Capitol as the ABC Television studios are at the following links, which also include more information.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76179806@N07/7018835117/in/set-72157629689613403
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76179806@N07/6872730034/in/set-72157629689613403/
It is interesting to compare this with the similar b/w photos. This, colour, view shows how the rebuilding after the 1932 fire left intact the front block (foyers, stairs and projection room) and rear block (stage and dressing rooms); and a much wider auditorium was (re)built in between.
The blue-ish, two-storey building on the right was tagged on by ABC when this building served as their Didsbury/Manchester studios. The chequered façade of light and darker blues is an echo of the style adopted for their make-over/rebuild of the Hippodrome Blackpool (reopened as the ABC Blackpool).
These (former front stalls?) exit doors are one of the few indicators of the building’s former use as a public hall.
The building as council offices (June 2013). It’s clear that the original hall (catholic chapel, with full height windows, was extended forward to Dalton Square when the terrace was erected. There are no indications of the former cinema use (apart from the roof vent for the former auditorium?).
The “Curtains!!!” (1983) listing mentions the arched, side elevation, windows being unblocked for the office conversion in 1980/81. This photo shows that the arched windows were only partially blocked, leaving small, oblong windows.
The following information and text is from the entry for the Hippodrome, Lancaster in “Curtains!!!” (1982):
1799 – opened as a Roman Catholic chapel. 1859 – use changed to a Temperance Hall. 1902 – converted to become the Hippodrome theatre. 1981 – converted local authority offices.
“The interior was completely reconstructed in 1931 as a cinema with one balcony and a small stage incorporated within the auditorium. Ashlar front to Dalton Square, which forms the end of a handsome terrace of houses. The side walls show the arched windows of the former chapel/temperance-hall. In 1980/81 the interior was gutted for offices, the façade restored and the arches in the side elevation unblocked and windows inserted.”
G J Mellor’s “Cinemas of Bradford” gives the seating capacity as 650, when first opened; reducing later to 476. KYB for 1942 and 1947 give 547 seats; and KYB 1954 gives 476 (the result of installing cinemascope?).
As the 1934 aerial photo shows, the location on Legrams Lane was rather isolated, with few houses in immediate proximity.
Also in the photo, it looks as though the conversion to sound involved knocking through the wall behind the screen and constructing a speaker/horn chamber on the outside (a technique used also at the Grange cinema).