Thread: Are there any original cinemas left?

I grew up in an era of large single screen cinemas and wondered if any of these still exist. All of the ones I knew are long gone or replaced by multi-screen complex. Although it was very rare I got to sit in the balcony, it was a rather grand experience and in some ways was nice to look down on the screen rather than get a stiff neck by looking up from the stalls.

I've seen a lot of old movie palaces in most of the USA cities we've traveled in. Those appear to have been built pre-WWII, however. I don't think there are many active 1950s-1960s theatres with giant screens and 2000-seat capacities. I think those were all chopped up into 15 different screens for either movie-going to neck-and-eye traumas. Some of them have seats that remind of a dentist's torture chambers, or maybe something Malcolm McDowell might recall without any pleasure whatsoever.

Loads of them around you just bneed to go to the small towns. But i guess we had better hurry before the bingo fairy comes and takes them!

In this area there are no original cinemas left, they have either been demolished, converted to multi-screen or converted to some other use.

I think that where the are some we should document them before they get ground to dust!

There are American drive-in websites that have forums and create traveling schedules for groups to descend on those few survivors. Vincent Price nights, Hammer film nights, musicals - all seem to be favorite destination dates for these traveling groups. Of course, this doesn't supply a steady cash flow but it does keep interest level higher.

Maybe this forum could have a post listing all the still-standing old cinemas in the UK, with a note saying if they're still open for business or not, under threat of demolition or not, and any web links.

I remember when I was a kid on the coener was a movie house (looked like a garage) they use to show Superman for 10 cents. I also remember the first real movie I seen with my sisters was Elvis Love me Tender. Elvis was a bad actor.

No original cinemas left in Lancaster, the last closed earlier this year. None in Morecambe.