It is an impressive building and one I have passed countless times over the years. It is on the corner of Oxford Road and I only knew it as a pub, but I would rather have fancied visiting when it was a cinema.
It is the old Grosvenor Picture Palace which was designed by Percy Hothersall in 1913 and it opened in 1915. So it dates from same time as our own Palais de Luxe on Barlow Moor Road. It was in its time the biggest cinema in Manchester seating a 1,000 people.
What draws me to the building is that although much bigger than our own Palais de Luxe there is much here that we would recognise from the smaller cinema on Barlow Moor Road.
Both had green and terracotta tiles and something of the same embellishments around the circular windows and blanks.
And there is one last connection. The Palais was part of the Moorhouse chain from 1939 while H.D. Moorhouse was a director of the Grosvenor.
Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson
No comments:
Post a Comment