Woolton Picture House

Last updated

Entrance to Woolton Picture House Woolton Picture House (1).jpg
Entrance to Woolton Picture House

Woolton Picture House (also known as Woolton Cinema) is a privately owned cinema in the Woolton area of Liverpool, England. [1] It is the only remaining single-screen cinema in the city, and is popular with cinema enthusiasts because of its old-fashioned atmosphere. The music of Mantovani plays before the main programme and in the traditional halfway interval, during which ice cream can be bought from usherettes.

Contents

It was purchased in 1992 by David Wood, the grandson of Liverpool cinema pioneer John Frederick Wood. Wood died on 12 June 2006 leading to the cinema's closure on 3 September. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the last film to be shown. In 2007, a group of entrepreneurs purchased the cinema and re-opened it on 29 March 2007 with a screening of The Queen .

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic led to the closure of the establishment, but a crowd-funding effort on Go Fund Me has raised £20,000, and has since became a landmark for people across Liverpool and citizens of Woolton [2] and the owners have suspended redundancies whilst they evaluate the availability of grants from the BFI and other sources. [3]

Timeline

1926 - The Woolton Picture House was designed by L.A.G Prichard, a well established architect, and was built for Alfred Adams who formed the Woolton Picture House Co. Ltd. to operate the cinema.

1930 - The auditorium originally held a seating capacity of over 800, composing of several rows of wooden benches. Although during the 1930s the screen was brought forward to accommodate larger speakers for an enhanced cinematic experience.

1938 - 45 - Remaining open throughout the war years, surviving the bombing raids of WW2, the cinema provided the local community a vital window to the front line, courtesy of Pathé newsreel.

1954 - The cinema acquired a new owner and was handed to Robert Godfrey of Cheshire Country Cinemas.

1958 - The onset of a fire at the front of the screen drastically altered the cinema, almost destroying the public area of the Auditorium. The building survived but remained closed for 3 months during extensive repairs.

1992 - Woolton Picture House was re-owned by David Wood, grandson of the cinema pioneer John. F. Wood.

2006 - The sudden misfortune of the unexpected death of David Swindell the chief projectionist, followed shortly after by the death of the owner David Wood, lead to the second closure of the cinema.

2007 - Woolton Picture House was purchased by a local business man and reopened, with a full house.

2009 - Woolton Picture House become the set for the film Nowhere Boy , a biopic of John Lennon's adolescence and the creation of his first band The Quarrymen and its evolution into the Beatles.

2010 - The cinema celebrated the film Premier of the Blockbuster movie Madrasapattinam with film stars hosting the cinema's red carpet event.

2020 - Due to unforeseen financial hardships that the COVID-19 pandemic brought, Woolton Picture House closed. [ citation needed ]

2022 - Press reports suggest Woolton Picture House may reopen. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilmslow Road</span> Major road in Manchester, England

Wilmslow Road is a major road in Manchester, England, running from Parrs Wood northwards to Rusholme. There it becomes Oxford Road and the name changes again to Oxford Street when it crosses the River Medlock and reaches the city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolton</span> Suburb of Liverpool, England

Woolton is a suburb of Liverpool, England. It is an affluent area located southeast of the city and bordered by Allerton, Gateacre, Halewood, and Hunt's Cross. At the 2011 Census, the population was 12,921.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everyman Theatre, Liverpool</span> Theatre and building in Liverpool, Merseyside, England

The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1964, in Hope Hall, in an area of Liverpool noted for its bohemian environment and political edge, and quickly built a reputation for ground-breaking work. The Everyman was completely rebuilt between 2011 and 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ByTowne Cinema</span> One-screen repertory movie theatre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The ByTowne Cinema is a one-screen repertory movie theatre located in Ottawa, Ontario, The cinema is one of Ottawa's main venues for independent and foreign films. The 650-seat cinema is located on Rideau Street at Nelson, several blocks east of the Rideau Centre. It was closed on December 24, 2020, with a final week of screenings shown on February 26 to March 7, 2021. The cinema reopened under new ownership on September 8, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Electric, Birmingham</span> Cinema in Birmingham, England

The Electric is a cinema in Birmingham, England. It opened in Station Street in 1909, showing its first silent film on 27 December of that year. It was the first cinema in Birmingham, and was the oldest working cinema in the country until its closure on 29 February 2024. The Electric had two screens, both able to show digitally-shot films and one also able to show films in 35 mm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cineworld</span> British cinema chain

Cineworld Group plc is a British cinema operator headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest cinema chain, with 9,139 screens across 747 sites in 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group's primary brands are Cineworld Cinemas and Picturehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cinema City in Eastern and Central Europe, Planet in Israel, and Regal Cinemas in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regent Theatre, Melbourne</span> Theatre and cinema in Melbourne, Victoria

The Regent Theatre is an historic former picture palace built in 1929, closed in 1970, and restored and reopened in 1996 as a live theatre in Collins Street, in the city of Melbourne, Australia. It is one of six city theatres collectively known as Melbourne's East End Theatre District. Designed by Charles Ballantyne in an ornately palatial style, with a Gothic style lobby, Louis XVI style auditorium, and the Spanish Baroque style Plaza Ballroom in the basement, it is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

ArcLight Cinemas was an American movie theater chain that operated from 2002 to 2021. It was owned by The Decurion Corporation, which was also the parent company of Pacific Theatres. The ArcLight chain opened in 2002 as a single theater, the ArcLight Hollywood in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and later expanded to eleven locations in California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois.

The Whiteladies Picture House is a cinema on Whiteladies Road in Clifton, Bristol, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keighley Picture House</span> Cinema in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England

Keighley Picture House is a cinema located in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric theatre</span> Type of movie theater

An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.

Green's Playhouse was an entertainment complex comprising a cinema, ballroom, tea rooms and other facilities. The Playhouse was at 126 Renfield Street, Glasgow, Scotland, commissioned by George Green Ltd, designed by the architect John Fairweather, and built by the Cinema Building Company. Opened in 1927, the Playhouse operated until the 1970s, a decline in audience numbers in the 1960s necessitated diversification as a music venue until closure in 1973. The building continued in use as the Apollo, after being acquired by Unicorn Leisure on a lease-holding arrangement, until final closure in 1985, with subsequent demolition in 1987.

In its days as an entertainment centre for London, Harringay in North London also provided more locally directed entertainment in the shape of four cinemas. The earliest was opened in 1910 and was operating as a cinema until January 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyde Park Picture House</span> Cinema in Leeds, England

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 believed to be the only remaining gaslit cinema in the world. Following the installation of "comfier seating", the Picture House has a capacity of 275, down from around 587 on opening.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris Theater (Manhattan)</span> Single-screen movie theater in New York City

The Paris Theater is a 535-seat single-screen art house movie theater, located in Manhattan in New York City. It opened on September 13, 1948. It often showed art films and foreign films in their original languages. Upon the 2016 closure of the Ziegfeld, the Paris became Manhattan's sole-surviving single-screen cinema. Since November 2019, it has been operated by Netflix, playing first-run releases alongside repertory programming.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Filmhouse</span> Church building repurposed as a cinema, in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

The Edinburgh Filmhouse is a cinema located in Edinburgh, Scotland, which opened in 1979. It was home to the world's oldest continually running film festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival. The cinema closed in October 2022 when its parent body went into administration. As of September 2023, a campaign organised by former staff is underway to reopen Filmhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Futurist Cinema</span>

The Futurist Cinema was a cinema located in Lime Street, Liverpool. Opened as Lime Street Picture House in 1912, the cinema operated until closing in 1982. Unable to find a new owner it was left to decline. It was demolished in 2016 after a court battle over the controversial plans for redevelopment of the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritz Cinema, Thirsk</span> Cinema in Sowerby, North Yorkshire, England

The Ritz Cinema on Westgate, Sowerby, North Yorkshire, England is a small cinema run by volunteers. The building was originally the Mechanics' Institute for Thirsk and Sowerby, but was converted into a cinema in 1912. Today, it is probably one of Britain's oldest operating cinemas.

References

  1. "Home". Woolton Picture House. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. Hadfield, Charlotte (1 August 2020). "Woolton Picture House over the decades as cinema to close after 93 years". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  3. "Woolton Picture House". Facebook. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. Haygarth, Dan (4 October 2022). "Woolton cinema sets out plans for reopening and second screen". Liverpool Echo.

53°22′31.7″N2°52′03.5″W / 53.375472°N 2.867639°W / 53.375472; -2.867639