Cosy Cinema

Middleton-in-Teesdale is a very small town (some 1,100 inhabitants) in County Durham, 10 miles north-west of Barnard Castle.

In March 2019, the Northern Echo interviewed 96-year old Tom Elder, who recalled that the Cosy Cinema was “little more than a converted house in the [centre] of the town, although it could seat a couple of hundred people”. The Picture House was opened around 1920 with 180-seats. On 18th April 1928 it was taken over by new operators and was renamed Kinema. By 1929 it had been renamed Cosy Cinema.

He also said that he and his parents had been invited guests at the first talkie shown at the Cosy: “Sally in Our Alley”, starring Gracie Fields, in 1931.

In true small-town cinema style, the Cosy Cinema did not make an appearance in the Kinematograph Year Books until 1934. At that time, the proprietor was Teesdale Cinemas Ltd, an AWH sound system had been installed, and there was one show nightly.

The following year the seating capacity was given as 400. This is double Tom’s recollection, and could have been an exaggeration.

From the 1958 Kinematograph Year Book onwards, the seating capacity had reduced to 236 (with no mention of the installation of CinemaScope, which usually accounted for such a drastic reduction). At the same time, the sound system was replaced with Kalee apparatus.

Remarkably, the Cosy Cinema was still being listed in the 1971, and final, edition of the Kinematograph Year Books. However, it was not mentioned in the Cinema Theatre Association’s Directory of Cinemas, published in 1980, or the later British Film Institute Handbooks. It could have returned to its original ‘under the radar’ status, but more likely it closed in the mid/late-1970’s.

I have assumed the building has been demolished, although I have not been able to determine the Cosy Cinema’s actual address.

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