Now the simple basic rule, when starting to write about a Manchester cinema, is always go to Derek Southall’s book first.
It is a delightful slim book packed with information, and I chose to ignore it in my quest for the story of the Rivoli on the corner of Denmark Street and Aberdeen Street, opposite the Whitworth Art Gallery.
Preferring instead to trawl the directories, the newspapers and those equally wonderful guides to all things cinema, which are the Kenematograph Year Books.
I have four for the years, 1914, 1928, 1929, and 1947 and they contain a mass of information, including a full list of all the picture houses, across the country.
And all this was because while doing something entirely different I came across the 1934 OS map for the area around Whitworth Park, and there on Denmark Street was a reference to the Picture Theatre Picture.
That got me going, but also threw up an obstacle because trawl as I did I couldn’t find the Picture Theatre, which of course was not its name.
Leading me back to Mr. Southall and the discovery that the Picture Theatre was the Rivioli, which opened in 1914, and closed in 1960 after its final showing of Pork Chop Hill and Crash Drive.*
It had just over a thousand seats, with a stage and three dressing rooms. In the early 1920s it became a dance hall before reverting back to a cinema in 1929.
It was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the student population and ironically was part of the properties acquired by the University for the redevelopment of the area.
By 1972, it was part of the Music Faculty, and a sign outside tells you that it is now part of the Business School.
I have to say in all the years that I have wandered past, I never gave it a second glance, and only now looking at it with fresh eyes I can see the clues that would suggest it was a cinema, with its entrance on Aberdeen Street.
Location; Denmark Street
Picture; The Tiviloi, 1972, D Wildgoose, m18606 and m18604, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass the Rivoli in 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and extract from The Kenematograph Year Book, 1947
*Southall, Derek, The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, 2010
**ibid Southall, page 54
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| The Rivioli, 1972, Denmark Street |
Preferring instead to trawl the directories, the newspapers and those equally wonderful guides to all things cinema, which are the Kenematograph Year Books.
I have four for the years, 1914, 1928, 1929, and 1947 and they contain a mass of information, including a full list of all the picture houses, across the country.
And all this was because while doing something entirely different I came across the 1934 OS map for the area around Whitworth Park, and there on Denmark Street was a reference to the Picture Theatre Picture.
That got me going, but also threw up an obstacle because trawl as I did I couldn’t find the Picture Theatre, which of course was not its name.
 |
| The Rivoli, 2015 |
By 1972, it was part of the Music Faculty, and a sign outside tells you that it is now part of the Business School.
 |
| Looking up Aberdeen Street to the Rivoli, 1972 |
Location; Denmark Street
Picture; The Tiviloi, 1972, D Wildgoose, m18606 and m18604, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass the Rivoli in 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and extract from The Kenematograph Year Book, 1947
*Southall, Derek, The Golden Years of Manchester Picture Houses, 2010
**ibid Southall, page 54
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