Picture House

The Picture House opened on 5th November 1912 with Kathlyn Williams in “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. It was built for and operated by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres(PCT). It was described as a beautiful little theatre, with elaborate decorations. An unusual feature was that the balcony was arranged like a series of boxes down one wall and on the other opposite wall there were tapestry panels, surrounded by oak wood frames. It had a decorated domed roof and all was illuminated by concealed soft lighting. The cinema had a café for the convenience of its patrons.

The cinema was very popular, and in reality it needed to be enlarged, but site restrictions prevented, as it was hemmed in by other buildings. This problem was solved when PCT took over the Hippodrome Theatre, a former variety theatre of 1908, which became the largest cinema in Nottingham at that point of time (1927).

The Picture House was closed by PCT (by then merged with Gaumont British Theatres) on Saturday 4th January 1930 with Joan Crawford in "Our Dancing Daughters" and Louis Wolheim in "Square Shoulders". Both ‘silent’ films as the cinema had never converted to talkies.

In January 1937, it was purchased by J. Lyons who converted it into one of their chain of café/restaurants. Several uses and changes have been made to the building internally since then and today it operates as an amusement arcade.

The façade remains unaltered and it was restored in 1992. It is now designated a Grade II Listed building by English Heritage.

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