Old cinemas still screening films

[Doctor Carrot]

A couple of weeks ago I went and saw Nosferatu for the first time and it was accompanied by a live score. It was brilliant and I'm really glad I waited to see it with a live band doing the score in a cinema rather than just watching it on YouTube or something. What really made the experience so great was the fact I saw it in a cinema that's been continuously operating since 1912. The place is in Clevedon, between bristol and Weston Super Mare, and it's a community cinema. It's called the Curzon but it's nothing to do with the chain it just happens to share the same name. I fell in love with the place straight away not just for its asthetics (see below) but the way it's run. It's entirely community run, staffed by volunteers who are obviously very proud of the place and it's funded by donations and lottery funding.

Anyway the whole experience has sent me on a bit of a quest to find cinemas like this that are still in operation. I don't mean necessarily run the same way but cinemas that have the same type of old asthetics as opposed to grey carpeted walls and grey seats. It also reminded me of my old cinema that I used to frequent in my childhood. I didn't really appreciate the grandeur and character of the place until I was an adult and it had long gone and had flats built on it instead. I'd quite like to go on little trips to see films at cinemas that are still like this so do any of you have any to share? I know there's a fair few everyman cinemas that look great but it's too pricey and overdone for my taste. I was gutted when the whiteladies picture house in Bristol lost out to Everyman, I was hoping it would be run in exactly the same way the Curzon is in Clevedon but alas it wasn't to be.

www.cinematreasures.org is a good site. Can search by architectural style but I'm not good at naming architectural styles plus it doesn't list them by country when you search using that filter. Thought I'd include it for easy linking if you know of any. It's also good for finding old cinemas no longer in operation that you might remember from when ye were nippers, if you do please share them too.

Curzon in Clevedon. The chips and holes in the art deco sun are from a WW2 bomb.

Inside the Curzon

Cinderford palace. I've not been but I like the look of it and it's only three quid a film!

The view from the balcony in my old childhood cinema in Ewell

 

[bluescreen]

I used to go to the Kinema in the Woods when I was a nipper. We used to hang our coats on pegs at the side of the room, and sit on folding chairs. It's a bit posher now, apparently.
Latest Film Releases, Film Showtimes

ETA Photos and Videos

 

[Doctor Carrot]

I used to go to the Kinema in the Woods when I was a nipper. We used to hang our coats on pegs at the side of the room, and sit on folding chairs. It's a bit posher now, apparently.
Latest Film Releases, Film Showtimes

ETA Photos and Videos

That's a lovely little place and what a location too! I see these sort of places as living heritage. So much gets closed down or just flat out blandly modernised, I don't just mean cinemas either and I'm not even sure why in many cases? I mean why make cinemas just horrible grey rooms with a screen in? Why not have some sort of grandeur? Makes it more of an experience I think. I guess it's cheaper so ridiculosuly enormous screens and booming sound systems can be bought instead. Fuck I sound old

 

[bluescreen]

I'm a bit keen on old filling stations too, but that's just me.

 

[bluescreen]

I'm a bit keen on old filling stations too, but that's just me.

Afterthought: No it's not, I reckon there's a thread somewhere.

 

[bluescreen]

Ah, here we are. I thought it was on Urban.
Photos: the Architectural Evolution of the Petrol Station
Fab fab fab.
Anyway, back to the pictures.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Ha that's a great little thread and relevent to this one too in the sense that there was just a sense of grandeur to it. I mean all you're doing is filling up your car but why not stick a light house type structure on top the petrol station? Same as I'm just gonna see a film but why not have an art deco sun as you enter the cinema?

 

[Fez909]

Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds (opened 1914)

Still showing films, and usually has a decent selection. Not your usual blockbusters.

Inside:

 

[Fez909]

Cottage Road Cinema, Leeds (opened 1912)

To my shame, I've never been to this one. I should fix that. It's only a mile away

Inside:

 

[Orang Utan]

I think the Cottage Cinema is the oldest continuously opening cinema in the country or summat.
It's even less than a mile from me and I rarely go as it only tends to show the blockbuster/family/grey friendly films, as it's struggling to survive.
I should visit the Hyde Park Cinema as that shows the better films

 

[tim]

Westmister University have recently reopened the cinema in their Regents Street building. It was designed in the mid-nineteenth century for slide shows and was where the Lumiere brothers first projected in London. It claims to be the oldest cinema in Britain, even if it hasn't been used as one for many of the intervening decades.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

Penistone has a double decker old cinema

 

[JuanTwoThree]

The Hyde Park was half a dozen streets away from many of the places I lived in. We went about once a week to late night showings. Late meant about 22.00 in those days.

Sitting in the Hyde Park Cinema was where a person behind us leant forward and said in a perfect Clouseau accent " May ah av a perf of yer cannabis?" He was over on some exchange with the French department and didn't know how to score. We introduced him to a friendly dealer we called Too Lucky Harry, who seemed to be working for/with the Drug Squad, because he never got caught.

 

[TikkiB]

Not so grand but I've always had a soft spot for the little cinema in Broadstairs. It's tiny but lovely.
Our history | The Palace Cinema, Broadstairs

 

[Doctor Carrot]

I think the Cottage Cinema is the oldest continuously opening cinema in the country or summat.
It's even less than a mile from me and I rarely go as it only tends to show the blockbuster/family/grey friendly films, as it's struggling to survive.
I should visit the Hyde Park Cinema as that shows the better films

Yeah these oldest cinema claims can get a bit silly. Apparently the curzon in my op is the oldest continuously running purpose built cinema in the world and not just the country. Maybe the cottage cinema is the oldest but not in a building purposefully built for a cinema? either way it looks beautiful.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Seems the curzon is older by three months and the cottage cinema was some sort of stable before it became a cinema. I'm amazed it's in clevedon but i think it was quite a grand little seaside town in its day.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Recently refurbed, the Phoneix in East Finchley has been operating since 1912 and is one of the oldest continuously-running cinemas in the UK.

Has some notable patrons and is a lovely place to watch a filum

 

[Fez909]

Yeah these oldest cinema claims can get a bit silly. Apparently the curzon in my op is the oldest continuously running purpose built cinema in the world and not just the country. Maybe the cottage cinema is the oldest but not in a building purposefully built for a cinema? either way it looks beautiful.

It was an old garage, so you'd be right

edit: whoops, seen fishfinger beat me to it.

 

[Sue]

My local cinema, the Rio in Dalston. Opened in 1909 as the Kingsland Palace.

About Us - Rio Cinema

 

[marty21]

The Little Theatre in Bath was opened in the 1930s and is still owned by the same family . It is lovely inside !

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Recently refurbed, the Phoneix in East Finchley has been operating since 1912 and is one of the oldest continuously-running cinemas in the UK.



Has some notable patrons and is a lovely place to watch a filum

Looks gorgeous inside and I like how it's run too.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

The Little Theatre in Bath was opened in the 1930s and is still owned by the same family . It is lovely inside !

Ooh what's it called? I need a day trip to Bath as I live in Bristol and I've been there criminally little since I've lived here. Seeing a film there would be a nice way to top the day off.

Edit: Oh it's actually called The Little Theatre

It looks absolutely grand inside!

 

[spliff]

A couple of weeks ago I went and saw Nosferatu for the first time and it was accompanied by a live score. It was brilliant and I'm really glad I waited to see it with a live band doing the score in a cinema /QUOTE]

I used to do this on early shift Friday afternoons 'accompanied by a live score' in the early 80's a the BFI archive with some fragile print (probably nitrate) we had strings and a piano, the musicians were amazing, they looked at the screen and and reacted almost immediately.

 

[cybershot]

Surprised the Electric in Brum hasn't been mentioned in this, another claimant of the oldest working cinema in the UK

Used to still use tape reels until a few years ago when it fully switched to digital.

The Electric Cinema

 

[spliff]

I spent at least an hour last night regurgitating my London Indy Cinema history, I wrote a hellavalot but only a snippit of it is within the quote #23.
Alcohol had been taken, I was inept I guess. The gist is here,
I found this a couple of years ago and was rather proud I was mentioned without being name checked.
I'm the chief projectionist.

One quiet afternoon, I was sitting in the ticket booth reading a book by Charles Bukowski.
To the chief projectionist, passing by, an acquaintance with Bukowski qualified me to be trained up to become an assistant projectionist.
The projection rooms at the Everyman were a beautiful place. There was a room with sofas and chairs that opened at the end on to a fire escape. Next to it was the booth, which was a long, narrow room with a 16mm projector, two 35mm projectors and an editing desk for assembling and disassembling films. Our lessons would begin with my tutor laying out two lines of cocaine on the back of the light box of one of the grey-green Cinemeccanica projectors. The coke scrambled my senses, made me feel giddy and raw, and diminished my capacity to take in new information. I became a projectionist but not a very good one.

That was in my dealing days, a cinema was pretty good for that, people come and go.
In the street where I lived people turfing up in their fancy cars and only staying for ten minutes draws attention.
But hey! I digress, this is about cinema. I will actually try and do something at some point about the rise and demise of 'Art House Cinema'
The last picture show