• Location and Building
  
• The Opening
  
• New Ownership and Fire Damage
  
• Closure of Cinema
  
• New Use as Warehouse
  
• Building Gutted by Major Fire
  

Location and Building
Occupying a prime position opposite the entrance to Peel Park and originally surrounded by streets of terraced housing it was a good location for a new silent cinema. The Yorkshire stone building purpose-built in 1923 as a single deck auditorium seating 750 people though this was later reduced to 603.

For many years it was known as the Coronet Picture House owned and managed by Albert Harrison who had aslo been involved with the Clayton (later Rialto) Picture House. The Coronet auditorium had a raked (sloping) floor and a proscenium width of 22 feet with decorative grills at either side and the screen mounted on the back wall of the building. The projection room was at first floor level above the entrance.

The Opening
The Coronet first opened on its doors on Monday 22nd July 1923 at 6.30pm with . . .

Grand Opening Performance
"The Second Mrs Tanqueray" - 1916 UK B/W Silent
A Drama featuring Pina Menichelli.
Perfect Music - Popular Prices.

The Bradford Daily Telegraph advertised "Come and see the Special Screening of the film version of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's famous novel." The 'perfect music' was provided by a trio of piano, violin and drums. In the opening week children were given balloons and a rather novel monthly programme printed on blotting paper for their school notebooks.

The Coronet was soon to have competition from the much larger Tennyson cinema built only a few months later and only a quarter of a mile down Otley Road.

Around 1930, Harrison installed the Western Electric sound system which necessitated building an outboard "box" extension on the rear wall to accommodate the loudspeaker horn assembly as there was otherwise no room behind the screen. The building of such box extensions was quite common in those early days.

New Ownership and Fire Damage
In the 1940's the Coronet Cinema Co Ltd was taken over by C & H Cinemas (Cawthorne & Hyde) part of the expanding A.S Hyde Circuit of Shipley. More details of Shack Hyde and his cinemas can be found in the Shipley Cinemas History section. In Bradford, Hyde was to take over the Elite and Coliseum in Toller Lane and to build the new Arcadian super-cinema at Lidget Green.

After a boom time for cinemas during the Second World War (1939-45) and the early fifties the Coronet suffered a fire on Monday 31st January 1955 in which the screen, stage and proscenium were destroyed. The Telegraph & Argus reported that fire "believed to have started in a pile of rubbish near the boiler house" at the rear of the building.

Shack Hyde, who leased the cinema with the executors of the late Clifford Cawthorne, said optimistically "It might open within a fortnight" but it actually took three weeks to construct a new proscenium and renovate the auditorium for a re-opening on Thursday 24th February 1955 with:

"The Fortune Hunters" - 1954 USA Trucolor Western 90mins
(also known as "The Outcast" in USA)
Starring John Derek, Joan Evans and Jim Davis.
with the support film:
"Case of Diamonds" with C. Evans.
(no further details known)

Closure of Cinema
The late 1950's were a bad time for suburban cinemas with the larger city-centre cinemas offering CinemaScope widescreen and competition from television. The Coronet fell victim to declining audiences and closed on Saturday 27th September 1958 with the final film

"The Duke Wore Jeans" - 1958 UK Comedy 90mins.
Starring Tommy Steele, June Laverick and Michael Medwin.

New Use as Warehouse
The premises were then stripped of its seating, proscenium and cinema fittings then converted into a warehouse for grocery supplies formed by a co-operative of local traders. Wholesale food distribution continued and more recently by Imperial Foods specialising in Asian cash-and-carry catering supplies. In recent years a triangular shaped loading area had been built on the left hand side of the former cinema auditorium in Airedale Road and internally three large openings connected with the auditorium warehouse. The building continued to be named Coronet House.

Building Gutted by Major Fire
Finally a disastrous fire in the early hours of Tuesday 29th July 2003 gutted the entire building and forcing quick demolition of outside walls for safety reasons. The result of this event can be clearly seen in the photographs.