The aim of the Going to the Pictures Project has been to help preserve a part of our local cinema heritage by collecting and recording memories from people who used and worked in the local picture houses from the 1930′s to the 1960′s.
Explore this map of 21 local cinemas within a 3 mile radius of the Plaza, from 1930 to 1960.
Local film maker Tim Brunsden has followed the Going to the Pictures project development and has created a documentary which tells the story of the project.
Films came to the cinema on large reels which would be projected onto the screen, the reels would sometimes break and get mixed up
My first memory of the pictures is coming to the Plaza to see ‘Oliver’.
The Regal was built as a purpose built cinema and opened 1939. With a white frontage, the sail shape building was a very popular venue especially with courting couples who remember the double ‘Love Seats’
Pay day pocket money in hand and off to the pictures, and to the ‘chippy’ for 3 penneth of chips – what joy, blown the rest of that week’s pocket money. My friends and I loved the cinema, oh what Happy Days.
Some students from Crosby High School have helped to create the Cinema Heritage Trail Map depicting the sites of the 21 Cinemas
Through the project we have been filming cinema memories, some of these can be seen as small clips on the website and the whole interviews have been put into the North West Sound Archive