Picture House
Station Road,
Castleford,
Station Road,
Castleford,
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A large free standing cinema with attached ballroom and with limited stage facilities still survives in Castleford. The exterior is magnificent but the foyer area (possibly into the lower part of the auditorium is unrecogniseable as a cinema. There was also a very popular cafe.
Now a bar – but the murals and stonework of the exterior are still well worth a visit.
Contributed by
Ian Grundy
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The company which owned this cinema was Rowley Townsend and Atkinson (RTA pictures) until 1962 when it was taken over by the Star group and promptly closed for Bingo. It was the only cinema in Castleford with 4 channel magnetic sound. (Super Simplex projectors, Westrex sound, Peerless magnarcs).
Star Cinemas held a monopoly of the cinemas in Castleford. They took over the 700 seat Star Cinema which opened in 1912, was re-modelled and re-named Majestic, later becoming the New Star Cinema-the first in the Star Cinemas circuit.
Other Castleford cinemas operated by Star Cinemas were the Albion Picture Palace taken over from ABC Cinemas in 1957, which later became Studio 1-2-3 and then the Cannon Cinema. Also, the Queens Cinema which was taken over about 1948.
I remeber the Queens closing, it’s last show was The Lone Ranger and the lost city of Gold doubled with The Flame barier, in I think, 1959. The building became the Queens Supermarket, later taken over by Associated Dairies to become the first ever Asda supermarket. I was a projectionist at the New Star from 1965 to 1967 when I moved to the ABC Wakefield. My mother worked first at the Albion (1954 to 1956), then the Picture House (1956 to 1962) then the New Star until 1965 when my brother was born. You missed out the Empire Airedale and the Cosy Glasshoughton.
Recent photo of the Picture House as a pub (exterior) here:–
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This is a 2007 photo.