Hyde Park Picture House

Last updated

Hyde Park Picture House
Hyde Park Picture House 6 August 2018 2.jpg
The front entrance of the Hyde Park Picture House.
Hyde Park Picture House
Location73 Brudenell Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Coordinates 53°48′44″N1°34′09″W / 53.8122°N 1.5692°W / 53.8122; -1.5692
OwnerLeeds Grand Theatre and Opera House Ltd. [1] [2]
Type Cinema
Capacity 275 [3]
Construction
Opened7 November 1914 (1914-11-07) [4]
30 June 2023 (2023-06-30) (Reopened following 2021-2023 renovation and expansion) [5]
ArchitectThomas Winn & Sons [4]
Page\Park Architects (2021-2023 renovation and expansion) [6]
Website
hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk

The Hyde Park Picture House is a cinema and Grade II listed building in the Hyde Park area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Built by Thomas Winn & Sons, it opened on 7 November 1914. It features many original features, such as an ornate balcony and external box office, and is the only remaining gaslit cinema in the United Kingdom. Following the installation of "comfier seating", [3] the Picture House has a capacity of 275, down from around 587 on opening.

Contents

After being threatened with closure in 1989, the cinema was taken over by Leeds City Council, who created the Grand Theatre and Opera House Limited, an independent company within the council which looks after the Picture House along with the Grand Theatre and Opera House and the City Varieties. An initial National Lottery grant was awarded in 2016 to partly fund a restoration of the building, build a cafe, improve accessibility and add a second screen in the basement. Planning permission was approved in June 2018 and a £2.3 million National Lottery grant was awarded in January 2019 to pay for the project. Following delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work began in April 2021 with the cinema scheduled to reopen on 30th June 2023.

A varied programme plays at the cinema, from arthouse movies to big new releases. This bill attracts a varied crowd of local residents and students. The Leeds International Film Festival began at the venue in 1987.

As well as showing movies, the cinema hosts occasional musical performances and has been used as both a backdrop for films and TV programmes and as a wedding venue.

History

Hyde Park Picture House was designed by architects Thomas Winn & Sons in 1906. [4] It was originally built for Leeds hotel businessman Henry Child, who owned The Mitre hotel in Leeds City Centre, however Leeds Corporation repeatedly rejected his application to transfer his license to his proposed new hotel, The Paragon, and the building was therefore modified to become Brudenell Road Social & Recreation Club, [7] [8] [9] being converted to a cinema in 1913. [9] [Note 1] It stands around halfway down Brudenell Road at the junction with Queen's Road, [1] on a canted corner. [4] The front elevation is topped by a Dutch gable with ball finials and features four ionic columns made from white Burmantofts Marmo. [4] Glazed terracotta dressings and a frieze with moulded letters spelling out "Hyde Park Picture House" appear at the entrance and contrast with the red brick, which makes up the majority of the building. [4]

The 587-seat cinema opened shortly after the start of World War I, on 7 November 1914. An advertisement in the Yorkshire Evening Post at the time of the opening, branded Hyde Park Picture House the "cosiest in Leeds". [10] [12] Their Only Son, billed as a "patriotic drama", [13] was the first film shown at the venue, while other morale-boosting releases, such as An Englishman's Home , [14] and newsreels delivering reports from the frontlines to families back home, made up the majority of the Picture House's programme during the Great War. [15]

Following the advent of "talkies" in the 1920s, the cinema was converted for sound. [14]

With a general decline in cinema audiences the cinema closed in the early 1950s then opened again. [9] In 1959, to promote the showing of The Big Hunt , a live elephant appeared outside the cinema. [16] At some point after this, the Picture House briefly closed and became a bingo hall before reopening as a cinema again in 1962, after refurbishment and installation of new projectors, with a programme successfully catering to the growing student population in the area. [1] [9]

In 1984, the private charitable company "Friends of Hyde Park Picture House" was set up to support the cinema and help preserve it as "an important part of our cinema and cultural heritage as well as ensuring it is maintained as an available public asset to the audiences of Hyde Park, Leeds, Yorkshire and the UK". [17] Members of the Friends receive discounted admission to the cinema and funds from membership go towards supporting the charity's aims. [17] Three years later, in 1987, the Leeds International Film Festival began at the venue. [18]

When the Picture House was threatened with closure in 1989, Leeds City Council stepped in to save it, creating an independent company within the council, the Grand Theatre and Opera House Limited, to preserve the cinema alongside two other Leeds venues: the Grand Theatre and Opera House and the City Varieties. [17]

The Picture House was given Grade II listed status on 11 September 1996. [11] The ornate gas lamp outside the cinema was separately Grade-II listed on the same date. [19]

Present day

The Hyde Park Picture House retains its original external ticket booth and terrazzo foyer floor. Hyde Park Picture House ticket booth.jpg
The Hyde Park Picture House retains its original external ticket booth and terrazzo foyer floor.

Along with Cottage Road, the Hyde Park Picture House is one of only two surviving original single-screen cinemas in Leeds, down from peak numbers of between 60 and 70 in the 1930s. [3] The Picture House retains many original features, including an external ticket booth, decorated barrel-vaulted ceiling and balcony adorned with a frieze of plaster festoons, brackets and shields. [3] [4] It is also the only cinema in the UK to retain "modesty" gas lights, [4] designed to avoid complete darkness in the auditorium. [4] [3] The original screen, painted directly on the wall and surrounded by golden cherubs, remains intact behind its modern successor. [4]

The cinema has seen several changes since it opened in 1914, notably a reduction in the capacity of the auditorium from 587 on opening to 275, [12] following the installation of "comfier" seating, [3] with the present seats having been salvaged from the Lounge cinema in Headingley after its closure in 2005. [1] The Cinemeccanica Victoria 8 projectors also came from the Lounge, while the clock to the right of the screen was taken from the former Gaumont cinema, which occupied the building now used by the O2 Academy Leeds. [1] The fireplace, which originally sat in the hallway, has been replaced by a kiosk. [3]

In 2016 the cinema was awarded an initial National Lottery grant of £122,000 to explore conservation work and an expansion of the venue. [20] It was announced that the money would be used to restore the building, including the terrazzo foyer floor and gas lights; build a cafe/bar so that customers no longer have to queue outside; install disabled toilets and improve accessibility; add a second screen in the basement; and make the cinema's archives available to the public alongside educational workshops, tours and archival screenings. [20] [21] [13] [22] Planning permission for the project was approved in June 2018, [23] and a further National Lottery grant of £2.3 million was confirmed in January 2019. [21] The work, dubbed the Picture House Project, is costed at £3.6 million and, with additional funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation and Leeds City Council, [24] was scheduled to begin at the end of February 2020. [25] [Note 2] The COVID-19 pandemic caused delays to the Picture House Project but, with a £285,600 Capital Kickstart Fund award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the UK government's Culture Recovery Fund, an announcement was made in February 2021 that work would commence in April of the same year. [26] Over two years later, building work was completed, with a reopening scheduled for 30th June 2023. [5]

The Picture House plays an eclectic programme of films, from arthouse and independent movies to big new releases. [27] Along with regular double bills and annual Christmas showings of It's a Wonderful Life , [28] [27] the cinema also hosts "Bring Your Own Baby (BYOB)" events, for children and their parents or carers, featuring lower volumes, subtitles and raised light levels. [27] [28] This mixed bill attracts a varied audience of local residents, graduates and students at the cities universities and "not just Guardian readers". [27] [1]

Actors, such as Paddy Considine, [29] Masanobu Ando [30] and Adam Buxton, have been interviewed at the cinema and film critic Mark Kermode has hosted several question and answer sessions. [1] Kermode is a "champion" of the Picture House, [1] describing it in his book The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex, as "a beauty; a proper old-fashioned picture palace" with a clientele that are "enthusiastic, attentive and apparently more interested in films than in their mobile phones". [31]

Other uses

The Hyde Park Picture House has been used as a backdrop in many films and TV programmes, including the feature-length TV drama A Is for Acid , the Vanessa Redgrave film Wetherby and the two-part BBC One TV film The Great Train Robbery . [32] It has also been used as a wedding venue. [22]

Occasional musical performances take place at the Picture House, with John Parish and Trembling Bells among those who have played. [15] [33]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Chrystal states that the building occupied by the Picture House was originally constructed in 1908 and operated as a hotel before being converted to a cinema in 1914. [10] The Historic England listing claims that the building is "reputed to have been built as an hotel by Henry Child" and was occupied by the Brudenell Social Club in 1908. [11]
  2. ↑ When additional National Lottery was confirmed in January 2019, work was slated to start in Autumn 2019. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harewood House</span> Country house in West Yorkshire, England

Harewood House is a country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built, between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation and slave-owner. The landscape was designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown and spans 1,000 acres (400 ha) at Harewood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pudsey</span> Town in West Yorkshire, England

Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 22,408.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Science and Media Museum</span> Part of the national Science Museum Group in the UK

The National Science and Media Museum, located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum Group in the UK. The museum has seven floors of galleries with permanent exhibitions focusing on photography, television, animation, videogaming, the Internet and the scientific principles behind light and colour. It also hosts temporary exhibitions and maintains a collection of 3.5 million pieces in its research facility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnsley</span> Town in South Yorkshire, England

Barnsley is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 96,888 in 2021, while the wider borough had a population of 244,600 in the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headingley</span> Human settlement in England

Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyde Park, Leeds</span> Human settlement in England

Hyde Park is an inner-city residential area of north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the University of Leeds and Headingley. It sits in the Headingley and Hyde Park ward of Leeds City Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otley Run</span> A pub crawl in Leeds, England

The Otley Run is the name given to a pub crawl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The popular route covers Far Headingley, Headingley and Hyde Park areas and commonly continues towards Leeds City Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millennium Square, Leeds</span>

Millennium Square is a city square in the Civic Quarter of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was Leeds's flagship project to mark the year 2000, and was jointly funded by Leeds City Council and the Millennium Commission. Total cost of production was £12 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leeds Conservatoire</span> Music conservatoire in Leeds, England

Leeds Conservatoire is a higher education music conservatoire based in the Quarry Hill district of Leeds, England. It was founded in 1965 by Joseph Stones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brudenell Social Club</span> Music venue in Hyde Park, Leeds, England

The Brudenell Social Club is a live music venue and social club in Hyde Park, Leeds, England. While being a social enterprise, it retains the "community atmosphere of its origins as a working men's club". The club is split into three areas—a 400 capacity concert room, a bar area and games room section and a second 400 capacity concert area, known as the Community Room, which opened in 2017.

A Passionate Woman is a British two-part drama mini-series that aired on BBC One from 11 to 18 April 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism in Leeds</span>

Leeds in West Yorkshire, England is a tourist destination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Leeds</span> Buildings of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

The architecture of Leeds, a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, encompasses a wide range of architectural styles and notable buildings. As with most northern industrial centres, much of Leeds' prominent architecture is of the Victorian era. However, the City of Leeds also contains buildings from as early as the Middle Ages such as Kirkstall Abbey, one of Britain's best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries, as well as examples of 20th century industrial architecture, particularly in the districts of Hunslet and Holbeck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Direct Arena</span> Indoor arena in Leeds, England

The First Direct Arena is an entertainment-focused indoor arena located in the Arena Quarter of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the first in the United Kingdom to have a fan-shaped orientation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cottage Road Cinema</span> Cinema in Headingley, Leeds, England

Cottage Road Cinema is the oldest remaining cinema in continuous use in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Situated in the suburb of Headingley, Cottage Road was originally built in 1905 as a garage for the nearby Castle Grove mansion. Local newsreel cameraman Owen Brooks leased the garage with his friend George Reginald 'Reg' Smith and the two converted the building into a cinema, which opened as 'Headingley Picture House' on Monday, 29 July 1912. The cinema changed hands in the late 1930s, ultimately being purchased by Associated Tower Cinemas, who changed its name to Cottage Road Cinema and undertook building work.

Leeds is known for its culture in the fields of art, architecture, music, sport, film and television. As the largest city in Yorkshire, Leeds is a centre of Yorkshire's contemporary culture and is the base for Yorkshire's television and regional newspapers.

Bradford Odeon is the name applied to two different cinemas in central Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. One, in Godwin Street, was built in 1930 and survives; the other, in Manchester Road, was built in 1938 and demolished in 1969.

LGBT culture in Leeds, England, involves an active community of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender/transsexual. A BBC News Online article published in 2012 stated that, while Leeds City Council has not published statistics relating to the number of LGBT residents, the figure can be estimated at 10% of the overall population, which currently suggests a total of at least 77,000. The tenth year of the Leeds Pride march and celebration, held in 2016, was attended by over 40,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majestic, Leeds</span> Building in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

The Majestic is a Grade II listed building on City Square, Leeds, occupying the corner of Quebec Street and Wellington Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Golden Beam</span> Former church and school building in West Yorkshire, England

The Golden Beam is a pub and Grade II listed building located in the Headingley area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was built in c. 1912 for the Church of Christ, Scientist, and was known as the Elinor Lupton Centre from 1986 to 2010 when it was a school arts centre. It was designed by Piet de Jong and William Peel Schofield from the architectural firm Schofield and Berry. Constructed in white Portland stone in a mixed style of Egyptian Revival and Art Deco, it was originally built as a Sunday school in c. 1912–1914, extended in the 1930s with a church building and then used by the Leeds Girls' High School as a theatre and music centre from 1986 until 2010. The structure has architectural significance in the locality due to its distinct style and use of materials; many original features and fittings survive, including the entrance foyer, two staircases and a glazed lantern in the auditorium roof.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Teal 2014.
  2. ↑ Leeds Grand Theatre 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BBC Leeds 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wrathmell 2008, pp. 193–194.
  5. 1 2 Vinter 2023.
  6. ↑ Wright 2021.
  7. ↑ YEP 1906a.
  8. ↑ YEP 1906b.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Preedy 2005, p. 48.
  10. 1 2 Chrystal 2016, p. 67.
  11. 1 2 Historic England. "Hyde Park cinema (1255790)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  12. 1 2 Tuffrey 2013, p. 116.
  13. 1 2 YEP 2016b.
  14. 1 2 HPPH 2016a.
  15. 1 2 YEP 2013b.
  16. ↑ YP 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 Friends of Hyde Park Picture House 2016.
  18. ↑ BBC Leeds 2009.
  19. ↑ Historic England. "Gas lamp outside Hyde Park cinema (1255796)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  20. 1 2 BBC News 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 BBC News 2019.
  22. 1 2 HPPH 2016b.
  23. ↑ Schofield 2018.
  24. ↑ Blow 2019.
  25. ↑ Ryan 2020.
  26. ↑ HPPH 2021.
  27. 1 2 3 4 McHale 2012.
  28. 1 2 Time Out 2014.
  29. ↑ Yorkshire Post 2011.
  30. ↑ Leeds Film 2011, p. 49.
  31. ↑ Kermode 2012, p. 296.
  32. ↑ YEP 2013a.
  33. ↑ Robinson 2015.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.