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.
We come along on a Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile….
Children’s Matinees
Saturday morning, hundreds of unsupervised rowdy children. What could it be?
In 1933/34 I went to “The Pictures” for the first time, but I was not impressed. The black and white film was very old and scratched; it looked like driving rain to me. A few years later I went again and paid a penny to get in with a penny for ice cream in the interval.
Flyer for the ‘X’ rated film ‘A Guide for the Married Man’
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.
The original building of what was the Palladium Cinema in Seaforth still stands today and has been part of the community for 100 years, having several changes of use. It is currently used as a gymnasium.
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
The Cinema’s of the 1930′s to the 1960′s were often seen as being a quite luxurious venue for the public to go. They were an important part of the community for socialising and magnificent places of entertainment