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View Full Version : Archived: Jesmond Picture House- dec 08



**MudLark**
01-01-2009, 09:24 PM
This site has been covered alot by other people, but it was my first visit to do humour me!

A little history on the place...

Jesmond Picture House was opened on the 2nd of May, 1921, with the film 'The Mercy of Tiberius'.( i know, i've never heard of it either....)
It had seating for 998 of the mostly middle class residents living in jesmond and surrounding areas at the time. I call this Jesmond, BS. Before Students.
The cheap seats were in the front, the beginning of a growing trend as theatre moved on to cinema. Not known for its cleanliness down there, it was nicknamed 'the flea pit'
Interestingly enough, despite catering for their audience with a better class of film, Jesmond Picture House was one of the last in Newcastle to convert to running films with sound.
The Picture House was altered ony once in its lifetime to accomadate 'cinemascope', later to evolve into Widescreen.
When audiences started to dwindle, Jesmond was used part time as a bingo hall, but the growing student population meant that cinema had a slight resurgence and from 1978, it went back to being a full time cinema. It pulled in a fair audience until finally, in September/October of 1993 it was closed... oddly enough not long after the Warner Bros multiscreen opened just down the road.
The posters of Whoopi Goldberg's 'Made in America' seem a little more poignant now, as that was the last film shown in the cinema.


I've been finding it hard to find pics of it in its heyday, but here is one of the better ones. I would love to see what the inside was like before it was stripped!!!
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/jesmond-cinema-150.jpg

So, enough waffle and some pics :p

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0358.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0360.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0366.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0369.jpg
old media, new media.......

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0371.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0377.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0372.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/geordie_2008/Jesmond%20Cinema/IMG_0383.jpg
This shot came about a bit by accident..... Torchlight on the top of the fridge...

So, all in all a good little trip, thanks to two other peeps i'm not sure are on here for the explore!