|
Cross Lane Picture House/Plaza Cinema Cross Lane, Great Horton, Bradford.
 Location The Building Whilst the Ebenezer Street elevation of the rear of the hall suggests three storeys, it was only a single deck hall with basement at rear and projection room at the top. The auditorium ran lengthways, west to east, on Cross Lane with the entrance at the side of the hall. Proprietors In the mid-1920s Arnold Gee was manager with twice-nightly shows and two changes per week. Interior Behind the splay walls and above the exit doors was a single dressing room at each side and reached by another steep and narrow wooden angled staircase. Each dressing room had a single corner sink with only cold running water. Although no flytower, there was a good height above the proscenium opening up to the eaves of the pitched roof. The stage overhung a rear external passage way from the exit doors and up a slope to street level. The projection room at first floor (top) level was accessed externally by a single door at the rear of the building in Ebenezer Street then up a very steep wrought iron staircase to arrive at projection, rewind and storage rooms. The basement was similarly accessed from Ebenezer Street by a separate door. The Opening "The Scales of Justice" - 1914 USA B/w Silent. Newsreels from the war front were to feature regularly. Kine-Variety Week commencing Monday 1st October 1923 musical comedy star Father O'Flynn was based on Alfred Perceval Graves' ballad. The film shot in Killarney was a unique production in that is was a synchronetic singing picture with star name performers on stage to accompany the screening. Marie Santoi (real name Mary Fuller) was a former Cotton Queen of Great Britain and was later seen appearing at the Bradford Alhambra Theatre when she died in 1944. In January 1928 there was . . . On Stage Whilst the following week it was . . . Brierley and Proud in a novel vocal scena Meanwhile talkies arrived around 1930 with the installation of the Western Electric sound system. Full Stage Shows "Rose Marie" The are stories about crossing over from one side of the stage to the other to reach dressing rooms by using the covered passage outside as no internal crossover was possible when the full stage was in use - rather cold, wet and windy in early March. Re-opens as Plaza "Re-opening on Monday 10th April 1933 under entirely new management and known as the Plaza Cinema, Cross Lane, with the latest Western Electric super talking apparatus and the finest Western Sound Screen as used in all the leading London cinemas." This sound system was to replace the earlier one and the opening film was . . . The Great Musical Comedy Prices were now 5d to 1/-d for the twice nightly performances. Further advertising boasted . . . "The finest talking pictures in the district at the Plaza". By 1935 it had changed to running continuous performance from 6.30pm to 10.45pm. The Richardson family were still involved at the time along with the Oriental in Oak Lane. Nearest competition for the Plaza was the Grange cinema further down Great Horton Road. Throughout the Second World War (1939-1945) and into the 1950s it was continuous programme on weekday evenings with three separate shows on a Saturday - matinée plus two evening performances. By 1950 the price had risen to 6d to 1/9d. Star Takeover Closure "The Premature Burial" - 1962 USA Eastmancolor 'Scope 81mins. Bingo In a short closure in 1980 the hall was modified with a flat suspended ceiling and fluorescent lights. Only the front half of the stage was used with a board partition erected behind the bingo equipment and numbers board. The former dressing rooms and rear half of the stage were just left unused. In 2008 remnants of black fabric screen masking and the large louvred sound board for the horn speaker were still there In the auditorium, the bingo tables and bench seats were arranged on the original raked floor and a refreshment bar added. All projection equipment had been removed earlier. The premises were then known as the Royal Bingo Club and run by Stuart Nuttall's Kingsway Clubs in conjunction with a similar bingo operation in the former Oxford cinema at Undercliffe. Bingo ceased in mid 2007. What Next? May not be copied or reproduced without permission.
|
A mixture of red brick and stone with a slate pitched roof and white faience frontage of the main entrance and faience decoration around other doors and windows.