The Cottage Road Cinema
The Cottage Road Cinema is the oldest cinema in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of the oldest cinemas in the United Kingdom, in that it has been continuously showing films since 1912.
History
The Cottage Road Cinema is one of the oldest cinemas in the country - open and continuously showing films since 1912 and remaining independently owned for the whole of that time. It celebrated its centenary on 29 July 2012 and now has a Leeds Civic Trust blue plaque.
The Cottage Road Cinema was originally known as The Headingley Picture House, and was not purpose built, but was adapted from a garage and workshop built in 1908 for Herbert Kirk, one of the sons of the wealthy Kirk family who lived nearby at Castle Grove.
By 1912 the Kirk brothers had no further need of the garage and it was taken over by their motor engineer, George Reginald Smith, and his business partner, Owen Brooks. Brooks was a flamboyant character - a keen motor cycle enthusiast and pioneering film cameraman, having made short news films for showing at the Tivoli Theatre in Leeds. On 29 July 1912 Brooks and Smith opened their 'electric theatre' as the Headingley Picture House. The cinema prospered, with various changes in its ownership, maintaining its own orchestra until the introduction of 'talkies' in 1931.
Frank T Thompson (of Golden Acre Park fame) bought the Headingley Picture House in 1937, but after only a year sold out to Associated Tower Cinemas, who added a balcony and changed the name to Cottage Road Cinema.
The company spent a further £20,000 in modernizing the premises in 1972, when a decision was made to continue its use as a cinema. Since that time, both the Lounge and Cottage Road Cinemas continued to operate successfully until 2005.
The Lounge cinema closed in January 2005 and the Cottage Road almost suffered the same fate. It was due to close at the end of July 2005 and in fact the staff had been issued with redundancy notices. In a last minute deal the cinema was taken over by Mr Charles Morris and the cinema became part of the Northern Morris group.
Since becoming part of the Northern Morris Group the cinema has introduced a special classic film night every 6 weeks. "Classics at the Cottage" has almost become a tradition where patrons can watch the classics in the fitting environment. Recent classic films have included: Cabaret, Casablanca, Some Like It Hot, The Godfather and Top Hat.
External links
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