National Picture Theatre
144 Beverley Road,
Hull,
HU10 7HA
144 Beverley Road,
Hull,
HU10 7HA
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Opened on 23 December 1914, the National Picture Theatre was a long and fairly narrow cinema in Beverley Road, with a handsome facade in redbrick, dressed in Portland stone. There were 1,050 seats in stalls and single balcony. The proscenium width was 24 foot, and to begin with there was a resident orchestra. Western Electric sound was added in 1930. The cinema was run in conjunction with the Theatre de Luxe (later the Cecil Theatre), and was a comfortable and popular cinema judging by contemporary accounts.
Both theatres were destroyed by bombs on the night of 7/8 May 1941, Hull was second only to London for war damage and six Hull cinemas were destroyed in that particular raid. Whilst the Cecil Theatre’s remains were cleared in 1953, the derelict ruins of the National Picture Theatre lingered on until, in February 2007, they were Listed Grade II as an historic building by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as one of the last relics of bomb damage remaining in the UK. Only the facade and parts of the foyer remain.
It is hoped that the facade will now be stabilised or restored and that the empty space where the auditorium stood will become a garden of remembrance.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
After the National was destroyed in the raid, the former Coliseum / Rialto cinema on Terry Street (just off Beverley Road) took the National name until it closed in 1961.
I remember this ruin, at the corner of Fountain Road (if memory still functional), a few yards from a major hospital…maybe a blessing regarding bombing. How good if it can be preserved, although was in poor state when I last saw it 20 years ago.
Incidentally came here regarding the other “National” almost diagonally across the road. That had an afterlife as a bowling alley.
Anyone reading here got anything on the Strand, further down towards town and seemingly suffered spontanious combustion in the early 60`s?
Before & after photographs and more information here:
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