Going To The Pictures

Memories are made of this… Project overview

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.

Cinema Heritage Interactive Map

Explore this map of 21 local cinemas within a 3 mile radius of the Plaza, from 1930 to 1960.

Children’s Cinema Club Monitors

Some young cinema goers were given the responsibility of being a monitor – providing help and assistance to the cinema staff

To be continued…The Serial at the cinema

Cinemas would show episodes of a serial each week which would be left on a cliff hanger, this was a way of having regular cinema patrons return each week

Films and Filming

Films and Filming was first published in 1951, and where other film magazines of the time publicized films and their stars with little critical appraisal, Films and Filming was very much a serious magazine about […]

The happy memories of the Odeon Cinema, Waterloo (now the Plaza)

When we were all younger, we used to go to the Odeon cinema for the the Saturday Morning Club. We would pay our 6(d) pence to go in, buy our sweets and walk into the main auditorium were a man played the organ.

Silent films – then sound comes to the cinema

The innovation of sound technology in the late 1920′s caused a sensation in the world of film and many cinemas had to adapt and alter to embrace the new technology.