Hebden Bridge Picture House
Coordinates: 53°44′27″N 2°00′45″W / 53.7409°N 2.0124°W
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Hebden Bridge Picture House in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, is one of the last remaining council owned cinemas in Britain.
The Picture House, built from 1919-1921, is a thriving independent cinema with evening screenings daily, matinees and tea time screenings at weekends and matinees most days during school holidays, and an 'Elevenses' screening every Thursday morning (with free tea and biscuits). It also screens live broadcasts of theatre, opera, ballet, music and arts documentaries via satellite. It has both digital and 35mm projection facilities. It has one screen with over 500 seats, and mainly operates from the stalls (accessible) seating downstairs, where the seats were new in 2016 and offer great legroom. It has a kiosk / bar serving hot and cold drinks, cake, popcorn, sweets, chocolates and savoury snacks.
The Picture House offers a wide ranging programme of film and live events. Screening anywhere between 16 and 26 films a month, there’s plenty to choose from. The programme ranges from mainstream and blockbuster to art-house and foreign language with regular screenings of specialist films and touring programmes from a range of organisations, including the British Film Institute. Certain screenings come with subtitles and / or audio description - see the programme for details.
History
Hebden Bridge’s Picture House cinema first opened its doors in 1921 and is one of the last civic owned cinemas in Britain. Originally boasting over 900 seats its first screening was a double bill of Torn Sails and The Iron Stair, with the Picture House rapidly becoming the main place of entertainment for the weavers, mill-workers, and other residents of Hebden Bridge and the upper Calder Valley. It has been in use as a cinema ever since.
In the late 1960s, when many of the mills had closed, the Picture House nearly suffered the fate of so many town cinemas and was very close to becoming a carpet warehouse. It was saved for the town by the actions of the then Hebden Royd Urban District Council who purchased the Picture House from its private owners for the sum of about £6,000. The cinema passed into Calderdale Councils control with local government reorganisation in 1973, and CMBC oversaw a subsequent refurbishment in 1978, removing half of the seats and leaving the current 492 seats with their often praised generous legroom.
In 1999, the future of the Picture House again appeared to be at risk when the site was earmarked for development. A strong community campaign Friends of the Picture House rapidly mobilised and following a mass lobby of the Calderdale MBC full council in July 1999 the development plans were rejected, and the future of the Picture House secured. As one campaigner put it at the time, “I speak of ‘Our’ Picture House… it has become part of our heritage.”
Since then the Picture House has blossomed, as one of the very few cinemas in Britain under municipal ownership. Under enlightened management, audiences have grown. Typically, between 15 and 26 films are shown each month, and the programming deliberately caters for all tastes, ranging from mainstream Hollywood to art-house and foreign language films. It is a vital facility for both the young and old.
2012 saw the transfer of the Picture House back to Hebden Royd Town Council (the body that replaced Hebden Royd Urban District Council) who originally took the Picture House into civic ownership in the late 1960’s. Since then there have been many significant upgrades and improvements to the cinema, the most important of which has been the installation of digital projection, ensuring the Picture House can continue to screen the latest film releases for many years to come.[1]
Friends
The Friends of the Picture House is a voluntary group that represents everyone who uses the Picture House. Its elected committee meet regularly to consider what its members want from the Picture House and how the Friends can ensure that the cinema continues to thrive. Two members of the Friends attend the Town Council’s Picture House management committee meetings to ensure that the views of the cinema-goers are well represented.
Membership of the Friends is free and open to anyone who has an interest in seeing the Picture House continue to cater for the diverse interests of its customers.
References
External links
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