Thursday 2 August 2012

Futurist Cinema Liverpool


The original cinema opened on 16th September 1912, the Lime Street Picture House was a very upmarket city centre cinema with a tiled Edwardian facade and 1,029 seats in the stalls and circle auditorium which was richly decorated with plasterwork in the French Renaissance style. Dummy boxes with a riotous pediment were either side of the screen opening and looked down into the orchestra pit. The lower walls were panelled in a dark oak wood. An unusual feature for such an early cinema was the provision of a lift for the circle patrons. There was a cafe-lounge located on the first floor. It was re-named City Picture House from 14th August 1916.


In 1920 the City Picture House was renamed the Futurist Cinema, a name the closed and derelict building still bears.

Lowry refers to the cinema in his short story 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'; "The advertisments were now for the Liverpool theatres.... A German film called the Nibelungs was at the Futurist." (Pg. 234).

No comments:

Post a Comment