The Parrs Wood entertainment complex slipped in while I wasn’t looking.
Now given its size and the fact that it has been there since 2001 that I agree is pretty staggering.
But in my defence I didn’t often travel down to east Didsbury or if I did it tended to be only as far as the old college opposite the two pubs.
So the first time I saw the huge complex was around 2004 on one of those buses taking the scenic route from Chorlton to Stockport.
Not that I am sniffy about the place, we use it a lot given that it is just down the road and offers free parking.
But it is big making me wonder what the people in the houses opposite think about the complex and the huge car park area directly in front of their homes.
And that got me reflecting on the reversals of entertainment history.
Originally the two Didsbury cinemas were in the centre of the village and off towards Burnage and both like so many other picture houses closed as fewer people wanted to sit in the dark with a shed load of strangers.
But the new cinema complexes offer more both in the variety of films they show and the degree of comfort.
That popular description of many old picture houses as flea pits was not so far off the mark. Some of the very earliest might well have smelt of disinfectant and the one just behind Chorlton Road a little up from the old Imperial was indeed a home for fleas given that it was beside the old tramways horse stables.
All of which makes the modern cinemas a cut above their predecessors.
But I do miss the Odeon, the Regal and the Gaumont built in the 1930s and marking in their time a new era in cinema going.
Some like the one on Chester Road in Stretford was built with air conditioning and others could boast a bar and all were magical places with their lush carpet, grand hall ways and thick velvet curtains.
These were places a world away from the often cold and drab homes that many left to escape into a world of Busby Berkley, Fred Astaire and Gone with the Wind.
All of which I was reminded of when I was at the Plaza recently in Stockport. This was the grand design of entertainment and maybe Peter will compliment his painting of Parrs Wood with one of the Plaza.
Until then I suggest you go looking at our new new book on Didsbury's pubs and bars or our earlier, Didsbury Through Time, which together tell the story of the area over the last few centuries.*
Painting; Parrs Wood Cinema complex, from the series East Didsbury, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*Manchester Pubs- The Stories Behind the Doors,-Didsbury, 2019 & Didsbury Through Time, Peter Topping and Andrew Simpson, 2013
Both are available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk and from E J Morton, 6 Warburton Street, Didsbury, Manchester M20 6WA, 0161 445 7629, morten.booksellers@lineone.net
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| The Parrs Wood complex, 2014 |
But in my defence I didn’t often travel down to east Didsbury or if I did it tended to be only as far as the old college opposite the two pubs.
So the first time I saw the huge complex was around 2004 on one of those buses taking the scenic route from Chorlton to Stockport.
Not that I am sniffy about the place, we use it a lot given that it is just down the road and offers free parking.
 |
| Parrs Wood Court, circa 1939 |
And that got me reflecting on the reversals of entertainment history.
Originally the two Didsbury cinemas were in the centre of the village and off towards Burnage and both like so many other picture houses closed as fewer people wanted to sit in the dark with a shed load of strangers.
But the new cinema complexes offer more both in the variety of films they show and the degree of comfort.
That popular description of many old picture houses as flea pits was not so far off the mark. Some of the very earliest might well have smelt of disinfectant and the one just behind Chorlton Road a little up from the old Imperial was indeed a home for fleas given that it was beside the old tramways horse stables.
All of which makes the modern cinemas a cut above their predecessors.
But I do miss the Odeon, the Regal and the Gaumont built in the 1930s and marking in their time a new era in cinema going.
These were places a world away from the often cold and drab homes that many left to escape into a world of Busby Berkley, Fred Astaire and Gone with the Wind.
All of which I was reminded of when I was at the Plaza recently in Stockport. This was the grand design of entertainment and maybe Peter will compliment his painting of Parrs Wood with one of the Plaza.
Until then I suggest you go looking at our new new book on Didsbury's pubs and bars or our earlier, Didsbury Through Time, which together tell the story of the area over the last few centuries.*
Painting; Parrs Wood Cinema complex, from the series East Didsbury, © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
*Manchester Pubs- The Stories Behind the Doors,-Didsbury, 2019 & Didsbury Through Time, Peter Topping and Andrew Simpson, 2013
Both are available from us at www.pubbooks.co.uk and from E J Morton, 6 Warburton Street, Didsbury, Manchester M20 6WA, 0161 445 7629, morten.booksellers@lineone.net
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