This 1928 aerial view shows the back of the Carlton with Manchester Road on the far side of the building. It was in a relatively densely populated area of terraced housing. How clean and bright the stone still looks (it’s been up 6 years). When I saw it (outside only) in the 1950s it was soot-black like most of Bradford.
The elements of the building show clearly. A full height stage extension on the left with single storey elements for toilets and exits. The foyer/stairs/projection-room structure at the right; with the auditorium in between.
The scanned photo shows the view from Forster Square towards Cheapside, with the cantilevered former showroom housing the two auditoria (Penthouse Club and CineCenta; the latter nearer the camera). They had separate entrances at pavement level at opposite sides of the station opening. The Penthouse Club’s is visible on the far corner; the CineCenta’s is hidden behind a lamp post and the “Electricity” showrooms.
The cantilevered feature over the entrance to Forster Square station was a floor to ceiling, glazed retail display feature that was never used as such. The Penthouse Club was at the far half with its entrance visible at pavement level. The CineCenta was in the nearer half with its entrance at pavement level on this side of the opening (but hidden by the ‘Electricity’ showrooms and the lamp post). There were a lot of stairs to climb (and I seem to recall carpeted walls making for a claustrophobic space).
The location was further north up Bury Old Road, between Orange Hill Road and Henry Street. A development of apartments bordered with blue railings is on the site.
Further to my last contribution: it looks like “Happiness Ahead” ran at the Queen’s Theatre on Cleveleys prom for the 1949 to 1960 seasons. The time at the Odeon (renamed Orion) was 1961 to 64. The summer show then transferred to Fleetwood and the Odeon/Orion continued on bingo. Perhaps someone could confirm those years.
The high, coffered ceiling gave the place cavernous acoustics and the warm ambience of a mausoleum. Projection was from the rear of the stalls. In the balcony one felt cut-off from the rest of the auditorium, as little of the stalls was visible from up there. Noises of people moving about reverberated around the space under that ceiling.
At the end of the 1960s the Tudor-bethan, panelled foyer still boasted a small, pre-war, sign proudly proclaiming that the sound system was by Westrex!
Can anyone say where the projection room was located?
Howard Williams, the architect, had a penchant for locating the projection room deep inside the wedge of the balcony with the front section cut out to give a horizontal throw to the screen (eg: Swansea Plaza (perhaps Albert Hall too); Port Talbot Plaza; Newport Maindee; Cardiff Olympia/ABC).
Or was ‘the box’ up at the back, where it was in most cinemas.
Is anyone able to give a definitive, evidence-based, answer on two claimed “facts” about this cinema.
“Fact 1”: This late 1930s development was a joint venture between Odeon Theatres and local business men; but Odeon pulled out because of the completion delay and bought the Majestic down the road. [It is true that Odeon Theatres did buy the Majestic in 1943; and the architect of the Plaza was Howard Williams of Cardiff (one of the local business men?)] Is the joint venture a myth?
“Fact 2”: The Plaza was divided into 4 screens. Studying interior photos on ForlornBritain.co.uk it looks like there were 3 screens (two in the rear stalls served by periscope projection; the third being the original screen viewed from front stalls and balcony). It is claimed that the balcony was partitioned off in some way and this was later removed. It would have been a substantial wall to give sound-proofing and to hold a screen and speakers. Had it been there, removing it would have caused significant internal damage but the photos show no sign of damage or of making-good. Also, how could a beam be projected to such a screen?
The architect was Howard Williams of Cardiff. He seemed to specialise in poured-concrete cinemas with the projection suite located deep in the balcony void with the central section of the latter omitted. The Plaza at Port Talbot and the Maindee at Newport have the same construction and projection arrangements. He used the same projection arrangement in Cardiff at the Olympia, when he remodelled an existing building.
The curved corner façade was not white stone, but faïence. The entrance foyer, with pay box, was very small, being just behind the curved part. Stairs with a metal balustrade led off it, on the right, up to the circle foyer behind those three vertical windows. Beyond the pay box, on the left, a double door led onto a corridor which ran across the width of the building behind the rear stalls. You can make out the exit at the Legrams Lane end of the corridor in the photo. It is the black shape under the canopy, towards the left. There were two sets of double doors into the stalls, at the head of each aisle, respectively. Seating across the auditorium was in three blocks: a central block and two blocks against the walls.
Access between circle lounge and circle was via a side vomitorium at the Legrams Lane side where patrons entering had their tickets torn by an usherette. There was an illuminated aquarium in the circle lounge, fitted into the space of reduced height where the circle above stepped downwards.
There was a rough earth car park behind the back wall of the stage. Down the auditorium flank along Legrams Lane were three or four mature trees, so the brick bulk of the building was not oppressive.
It was a classy cinema. The Grange, at the other end of Horton Grange Road, was a dated period piece.
Sorry Ian, there’s an error. The Odeon was renamed Orion when it became a theatre. That name continued for the bingo.
There had been an art deco theatre called the Queen’s Theatre on Cleveleys promenade, which ran summer season shows entitled “Happiness Ahead”. The producer was Mildred Crossley. She took over the Odeon (I believe building works were needed for stage use) and renamed it Orion. Whether it was bought outright or leased, I do not know. She has the credit for giving Roy Castle early career employment. He trod the boards at the Queen’s Theatre, playing the trumpet and doing Jerry Lewis impressions.
I saw the Rank film “The Admirable Chrichton” (with Kenneth Moore and Cecil Parker; released 1957) at the Odeon. It may be a false memory but I recall the front stalls seats being on a reverse-rake floor (sloping up, from a cross aisle, towards the screen).
On the blank vertical step wall, where the auditorium bulk dropped down to the flat roof over the screen/stage, there used to be large painted letters greeting tram passengers arriving from Blackpool. THE ODEON WELCOMES YOU TO CLEVELEYS.
Projection was from behind the rear stalls. When 70mm equipment was installed a lot of decorative edging under the front of the balcony was chiselled off to accommodate the picture height.
This photo is after the 1961 make-over and shows clearly the drapes hung at the vast window which originally illuminated a balcony lounge/foyer. The pub to the right was part of the development. It sold Melbourne ales (a long gone brewery) and stood on land that is just over the dual carriageway from the National Media Museum and Pictureville cinema.
The windows to left and right of the roller-shuttered, arched entrance were the men’s and women’s toilets, respectively, accessed from the small entrance foyer. Sometime very early in the 1950s the low brick extension was built as the men’s (floor below street level) with access from the auditorium. Auditorium access was made into the women’s and the foyer access sealed off. The original men’s became a staff room. I recall seeing the interval ice cream sales trays and freezers in there.
The red brick flank of the auditorium still shows the line of a canopy covering the area which never seemed to serve any real purpose. Though, as children, we could go under the canopy and put our ears to air bricks below the (now boarded; once shuttered) windows and hear the film!
The photo above was taken after the construction of a cinemascope screen with festoon curtains in front of the original proscenium: a common solution to the wide screen problem.
The main entrance on Little Horton Lane(shown above) was for the more expensive seats and involved a long walk down a corridor behind the terrace of houses on the right of the photo. The auditorium and stage building was on Manchester Road, exactly opposite the old Odeon. For cheaper seats at the Prince’s, patrons walked the pavement in front of the terrace houses to the auditorium. The Prince’s was, latterly, a repertory theatre with Harry Hanson’s Court Players; Pat Phoenix was a ‘Player’ before going on to be Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.
“Purpose-built” is wrong. In the 1960s a new, speculative shops/offices development was built across the front of Forster Square railway station, bridging a high and wide entrance opening to the latter. Above that opening were high extensively glazed units in a feature which projected out from the façade of the building and which stood empty for a very long time. Eventually, they were blacked out and converted into two small cinemas. The projection room was above the two small auditoria and used periscope projection. One had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the cinema!
(Cinemas in shop units: that’s how it all started.)
This cinema was on a triangular site, with shops at the apex and along the flanks of the auditorium. It was tardis-like to me: so vast inside; yet without overwhelming bulk when seen outside (unlike the Odeon and Gaumont across the town centre). The internal height came from the stalls area being entirely below ground level. The organ (in the photo above) was damaged and removed when the centre of Bradford flooded in 1947. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradford_timeline/6516698169/
With the introduction of cinemascope, as in many cinemas, the screen was brought as far forward as possible (for side stalls sight lines) and the impressive display of suspended fabric went. The light coloured tabs would open at a tremendous lick (in my memory, always with the Pathe News cockerel and music) and billow out voluminously before falling back beyond the proscenium sides.
This was one of the first cinemas in Bradford to go over to showing Asian films. The projectionists were, however, English. The arrangement caused trouble one night when a feature had arrived with the reels wrongly number and got shown in the wrong order.
The 1961 closure involved the low entrance foyer ceiling being broken through into the large circle lounge above (behind the huge windows which were draped over) to create a lofty entrance (with new stairs, I think). The auditorium was repainted in subtly contrasting bands up the walls and across the ceiling. The Art Deco figures on the proscenium splays were removed and the picture-frame cove lights dispensed with. The octagonal “The Odeon” clocks were removed from either side of the proscenium and resited centrally on the rear walls of the stalls and circle. Yellow/gold spot lighting was arranged along the front of the circle, which illuminated new gold curtains and pale painted proscenium frames. The effect was garishly bright. “Tunes of Glory” was the re-opening film.
1920 is the date I have for this view, a cropped version is also on this site.
Kapo (the title on the poster) was a 1960 Polish film.
This 1928 aerial view shows the back of the Carlton with Manchester Road on the far side of the building. It was in a relatively densely populated area of terraced housing. How clean and bright the stone still looks (it’s been up 6 years). When I saw it (outside only) in the 1950s it was soot-black like most of Bradford.
The elements of the building show clearly. A full height stage extension on the left with single storey elements for toilets and exits. The foyer/stairs/projection-room structure at the right; with the auditorium in between.
The scanned photo shows the view from Forster Square towards Cheapside, with the cantilevered former showroom housing the two auditoria (Penthouse Club and CineCenta; the latter nearer the camera). They had separate entrances at pavement level at opposite sides of the station opening. The Penthouse Club’s is visible on the far corner; the CineCenta’s is hidden behind a lamp post and the “Electricity” showrooms.
The cantilevered feature over the entrance to Forster Square station was a floor to ceiling, glazed retail display feature that was never used as such. The Penthouse Club was at the far half with its entrance visible at pavement level. The CineCenta was in the nearer half with its entrance at pavement level on this side of the opening (but hidden by the ‘Electricity’ showrooms and the lamp post). There were a lot of stairs to climb (and I seem to recall carpeted walls making for a claustrophobic space).
The location was further north up Bury Old Road, between Orange Hill Road and Henry Street. A development of apartments bordered with blue railings is on the site.
Further to my last contribution: it looks like “Happiness Ahead” ran at the Queen’s Theatre on Cleveleys prom for the 1949 to 1960 seasons. The time at the Odeon (renamed Orion) was 1961 to 64. The summer show then transferred to Fleetwood and the Odeon/Orion continued on bingo. Perhaps someone could confirm those years.
The high, coffered ceiling gave the place cavernous acoustics and the warm ambience of a mausoleum. Projection was from the rear of the stalls. In the balcony one felt cut-off from the rest of the auditorium, as little of the stalls was visible from up there. Noises of people moving about reverberated around the space under that ceiling.
At the end of the 1960s the Tudor-bethan, panelled foyer still boasted a small, pre-war, sign proudly proclaiming that the sound system was by Westrex!
Can anyone say where the projection room was located?
Howard Williams, the architect, had a penchant for locating the projection room deep inside the wedge of the balcony with the front section cut out to give a horizontal throw to the screen (eg: Swansea Plaza (perhaps Albert Hall too); Port Talbot Plaza; Newport Maindee; Cardiff Olympia/ABC).
Or was ‘the box’ up at the back, where it was in most cinemas.
Is anyone able to give a definitive, evidence-based, answer on two claimed “facts” about this cinema.
“Fact 1”: This late 1930s development was a joint venture between Odeon Theatres and local business men; but Odeon pulled out because of the completion delay and bought the Majestic down the road. [It is true that Odeon Theatres did buy the Majestic in 1943; and the architect of the Plaza was Howard Williams of Cardiff (one of the local business men?)] Is the joint venture a myth?
“Fact 2”: The Plaza was divided into 4 screens. Studying interior photos on ForlornBritain.co.uk it looks like there were 3 screens (two in the rear stalls served by periscope projection; the third being the original screen viewed from front stalls and balcony). It is claimed that the balcony was partitioned off in some way and this was later removed. It would have been a substantial wall to give sound-proofing and to hold a screen and speakers. Had it been there, removing it would have caused significant internal damage but the photos show no sign of damage or of making-good. Also, how could a beam be projected to such a screen?
The architect was Howard Williams of Cardiff. He seemed to specialise in poured-concrete cinemas with the projection suite located deep in the balcony void with the central section of the latter omitted. The Plaza at Port Talbot and the Maindee at Newport have the same construction and projection arrangements. He used the same projection arrangement in Cardiff at the Olympia, when he remodelled an existing building.
The curved corner façade was not white stone, but faïence. The entrance foyer, with pay box, was very small, being just behind the curved part. Stairs with a metal balustrade led off it, on the right, up to the circle foyer behind those three vertical windows. Beyond the pay box, on the left, a double door led onto a corridor which ran across the width of the building behind the rear stalls. You can make out the exit at the Legrams Lane end of the corridor in the photo. It is the black shape under the canopy, towards the left. There were two sets of double doors into the stalls, at the head of each aisle, respectively. Seating across the auditorium was in three blocks: a central block and two blocks against the walls.
Access between circle lounge and circle was via a side vomitorium at the Legrams Lane side where patrons entering had their tickets torn by an usherette. There was an illuminated aquarium in the circle lounge, fitted into the space of reduced height where the circle above stepped downwards.
There was a rough earth car park behind the back wall of the stage. Down the auditorium flank along Legrams Lane were three or four mature trees, so the brick bulk of the building was not oppressive.
It was a classy cinema. The Grange, at the other end of Horton Grange Road, was a dated period piece.
Sorry Ian, there’s an error. The Odeon was renamed Orion when it became a theatre. That name continued for the bingo.
There had been an art deco theatre called the Queen’s Theatre on Cleveleys promenade, which ran summer season shows entitled “Happiness Ahead”. The producer was Mildred Crossley. She took over the Odeon (I believe building works were needed for stage use) and renamed it Orion. Whether it was bought outright or leased, I do not know. She has the credit for giving Roy Castle early career employment. He trod the boards at the Queen’s Theatre, playing the trumpet and doing Jerry Lewis impressions.
I saw the Rank film “The Admirable Chrichton” (with Kenneth Moore and Cecil Parker; released 1957) at the Odeon. It may be a false memory but I recall the front stalls seats being on a reverse-rake floor (sloping up, from a cross aisle, towards the screen).
On the blank vertical step wall, where the auditorium bulk dropped down to the flat roof over the screen/stage, there used to be large painted letters greeting tram passengers arriving from Blackpool. THE ODEON WELCOMES YOU TO CLEVELEYS.
There is an uncommon angle on the Hall Ings side of the early Ritz.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradford_timeline/5370526146/
Projection was from behind the rear stalls. When 70mm equipment was installed a lot of decorative edging under the front of the balcony was chiselled off to accommodate the picture height.
This photo is after the 1961 make-over and shows clearly the drapes hung at the vast window which originally illuminated a balcony lounge/foyer. The pub to the right was part of the development. It sold Melbourne ales (a long gone brewery) and stood on land that is just over the dual carriageway from the National Media Museum and Pictureville cinema.
The windows to left and right of the roller-shuttered, arched entrance were the men’s and women’s toilets, respectively, accessed from the small entrance foyer. Sometime very early in the 1950s the low brick extension was built as the men’s (floor below street level) with access from the auditorium. Auditorium access was made into the women’s and the foyer access sealed off. The original men’s became a staff room. I recall seeing the interval ice cream sales trays and freezers in there.
The red brick flank of the auditorium still shows the line of a canopy covering the area which never seemed to serve any real purpose. Though, as children, we could go under the canopy and put our ears to air bricks below the (now boarded; once shuttered) windows and hear the film!
The photo above was taken after the construction of a cinemascope screen with festoon curtains in front of the original proscenium: a common solution to the wide screen problem.
The main entrance on Little Horton Lane(shown above) was for the more expensive seats and involved a long walk down a corridor behind the terrace of houses on the right of the photo. The auditorium and stage building was on Manchester Road, exactly opposite the old Odeon. For cheaper seats at the Prince’s, patrons walked the pavement in front of the terrace houses to the auditorium. The Prince’s was, latterly, a repertory theatre with Harry Hanson’s Court Players; Pat Phoenix was a ‘Player’ before going on to be Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.
The Pictureville Cinema began life as the “Library Theatre”, built as part of the new Bradford Central Library constructed in the late 1960s.
Interesting that the National Media Museum’s two cinemas were both originally built as live theatres!
“Purpose-built” is wrong. In the 1960s a new, speculative shops/offices development was built across the front of Forster Square railway station, bridging a high and wide entrance opening to the latter. Above that opening were high extensively glazed units in a feature which projected out from the façade of the building and which stood empty for a very long time. Eventually, they were blacked out and converted into two small cinemas. The projection room was above the two small auditoria and used periscope projection. One had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the cinema!
(Cinemas in shop units: that’s how it all started.)
This cinema was on a triangular site, with shops at the apex and along the flanks of the auditorium. It was tardis-like to me: so vast inside; yet without overwhelming bulk when seen outside (unlike the Odeon and Gaumont across the town centre). The internal height came from the stalls area being entirely below ground level. The organ (in the photo above) was damaged and removed when the centre of Bradford flooded in 1947. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradford_timeline/6516698169/
With the introduction of cinemascope, as in many cinemas, the screen was brought as far forward as possible (for side stalls sight lines) and the impressive display of suspended fabric went. The light coloured tabs would open at a tremendous lick (in my memory, always with the Pathe News cockerel and music) and billow out voluminously before falling back beyond the proscenium sides.
This was one of the first cinemas in Bradford to go over to showing Asian films. The projectionists were, however, English. The arrangement caused trouble one night when a feature had arrived with the reels wrongly number and got shown in the wrong order.
The 1961 closure involved the low entrance foyer ceiling being broken through into the large circle lounge above (behind the huge windows which were draped over) to create a lofty entrance (with new stairs, I think). The auditorium was repainted in subtly contrasting bands up the walls and across the ceiling. The Art Deco figures on the proscenium splays were removed and the picture-frame cove lights dispensed with. The octagonal “The Odeon” clocks were removed from either side of the proscenium and resited centrally on the rear walls of the stalls and circle. Yellow/gold spot lighting was arranged along the front of the circle, which illuminated new gold curtains and pale painted proscenium frames. The effect was garishly bright. “Tunes of Glory” was the re-opening film.