I have long been fascinated by our five cinemas, which I have written about over the years.*
Of these, the old Picture House on Manchester Road was in its time the grandest of all of them, seating 1,500.
It opened in 1920, changed its name to the Savoy and then the Gaumont, before closing in 1962 to become the home of the Co-op Undertakers.
And now fifty-seven years later the Co-op will be moving out and putting the building up for sale, and an exciting new project has been launched to return the cinema to “the community to be used as a museum of memorabilia of The Bee Gees, theatre, cinema, dance hall, exhibition hall and community meeting place. It is intended to raise money for the purchase of the property by public donations. This iconic building was the first place that The Bee Gees performed live”. **
Now the historian in me is intrigued as to just what is left of the old Picture House.
I know that the circle was extended forward to the proscenium arch and for decades was used as a workshop and storage area for the coffins. This area is now deemed unsafe and has been closed off to staff and to inquisitive and reckless researchers like me, who despite offering to accept the risks has been denied entry. **
Equally interesting is the frontage.
Sometime before 1958 the two domes on either side of the building were demolished, but just perhaps the lavish exterior seen in both the 1920s picture and the later one might still be intact, behind the present Co-op edifice.
Now that would be a real find, and while we are at it, perhaps squirreled away in the deep recesses of the cinema, there might be some fascinating memorabilia, hastily discarded, and now lost, but waiting to come out into the daylight.
We shall see.
Location: Chorlton
Pictures; The Picture House; 1920, from the Lloyd Collection, and in 1958, A H Downes, m09220, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Chorlton Cinemas, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20cinemas
**Back to the Gaumont, Facebook site
*** Gaumont Chorlton-cum-Hardy, cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/33843
It opened in 1920, changed its name to the Savoy and then the Gaumont, before closing in 1962 to become the home of the Co-op Undertakers.
And now fifty-seven years later the Co-op will be moving out and putting the building up for sale, and an exciting new project has been launched to return the cinema to “the community to be used as a museum of memorabilia of The Bee Gees, theatre, cinema, dance hall, exhibition hall and community meeting place. It is intended to raise money for the purchase of the property by public donations. This iconic building was the first place that The Bee Gees performed live”. **
Now the historian in me is intrigued as to just what is left of the old Picture House.
I know that the circle was extended forward to the proscenium arch and for decades was used as a workshop and storage area for the coffins. This area is now deemed unsafe and has been closed off to staff and to inquisitive and reckless researchers like me, who despite offering to accept the risks has been denied entry. **
Sometime before 1958 the two domes on either side of the building were demolished, but just perhaps the lavish exterior seen in both the 1920s picture and the later one might still be intact, behind the present Co-op edifice.
Now that would be a real find, and while we are at it, perhaps squirreled away in the deep recesses of the cinema, there might be some fascinating memorabilia, hastily discarded, and now lost, but waiting to come out into the daylight.
We shall see.
Location: Chorlton
Pictures; The Picture House; 1920, from the Lloyd Collection, and in 1958, A H Downes, m09220, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Chorlton Cinemas, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20cinemas
**Back to the Gaumont, Facebook site
*** Gaumont Chorlton-cum-Hardy, cinema Treasures, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/33843
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