Woolton Picture House (also known as Woolton Cinema) is a privately owned

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

in the

Woolton Woolton (; ) is a suburb of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England. It is an area located southeast of the city and bordered by Allerton, Gateacre, Halewood, and Hunt's Cross. At the 2011 Census, the population was 12,921. Overview Originally a ...

area of

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a port city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population of (in ), Liverpool is the administrative, c ...

. It is the only remaining single-screen cinema in the city, and is popular with cinema enthusiasts because of its old-fashioned atmosphere. The music of

Mantovani Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 30 March 1980) was an Italian British conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book '' British Hit Singles & Albums'' ...

plays before the main programme and in the traditional halfway interval, during which ice cream can be bought from usherettes. It was purchased in 1992 by David Wood, the grandson of Liverpool cinema pioneer John Frederick Wood. Wood died on 12 June 2006 leading to the cinema's closure on 3 September. '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' was the last film to be shown. In 2007, a group of

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

purchased the cinema and re-opened it on 29 March 2007 with a screening of '' The Queen''. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic led to the closure of the establishment, but a crowd-funding effort on Go Fund Me has raised £20,000, and has since became a landmark for people in Liverpool and citizens of Woolton and the owners have suspended redundancies whilst they evaluate the availability of grants from the BFI and other sources.

Timeline

1926 - The Woolton Picture House was designed by L.A.G Prichard, a well established architect and was built for Alfred Adams who formed the Woolton Picture House Co. Ltd. to operate the cinema. 1930 - The auditorium originally held a seating capacity of over 800, composing of several rows of wooden benches. Although during the 1930s the screen was brought forward to accommodate larger speakers for an enhanced cinematic experience. 1938 - 45 - Remaining open throughout the war years, surviving the bombing raids of WW2, the cinema provided the local community a vital window to the front line, courtesy of

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

. 1954 - The cinema acquired a new owner and was handed to Robert Godfrey of Cheshire Country Cinemas. 1958 - The onset of a fire at the front of the screen drastically altered the cinema, almost destroying the public area of the Auditorium. The building survived but remained closed for 3 months during extensive repairs. 1992 - Woolton Picture House was re-owned by David Wood, grandson of the cinema pioneer John. F. Wood. 2006 - The sudden misfortune of the unexpected death of David Swindell the chief projectionist, followed shortly after by the death of the owner David Wood, lead to the second closure of the cinema. 2007 - Woolton Picture House was purchased by a local business man and reopened, with a full house. 2009 - Woolton Picture House become the set for the film ''

Nowhere Boy ''Nowhere Boy'' is a 2009 British biographical drama film, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson in her directorial debut. Written by Matt Greenhalgh, it is based on Julia Baird's biography of her half-brother, the musician John Lennon. ''Nowhere ...

'', a biopic of John Lennon's adolescence and the creation of his first band

The Quarrymen The Quarrymen (also written as "the Quarry Men") are a British skiffle and rock and roll group, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Originally consisting of Lennon and several school friends, the ...

and its evolution into the Beatles. 2010 - The cinema celebrated the film Premier of the Blockbuster movie ''

Madrasapattinam ''Madrasapattinam'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language historical romantic drama film written and directed by A. L. Vijay. The film stars Arya with Amy Jackson (in her feature film debut), while Carole Trangmar-Palmer plays an older version ...

'' with film stars hosting the cinema's red carpet event. 2020 - Due to unforeseen financial hardships that the COVID-19 pandemic brought, Woolton Picture House closed. 2022 - Press reports suggest Woolton Picture House may reopen.

References

External links

Woolton Picture House Official Website
Buildings and structures in Liverpool Cinemas in Merseyside {{Merseyside-struct-stub