SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I noticed there was alot of interest in the cinemas of yester-year. So i opened this thread for people to share experiences and stories of cinemas which are still open, more importantly do they prefer the hyde park picturehouse or the cottage road cinema?

The problem is - and you've already hit the nail on the head here,deano - is that if you want 'memories of cinemas that are still open' then these two are the only candidates.Unless someone has memories they'd like to share of 'Vue' at Kirkstall or the 'Light'.......

I remeber when the Light was all streets!!!! Used to be a great place to park the car down upper fountain street, and motorcyclists used to park under the arch on the headrow entrance just by browns!

LS1 wrote: I remeber when the Light was all streets!!!! Used to be a great place to park the car down upper fountain street, and motorcyclists used to park under the arch on the headrow entrance just by browns! Thats true! It was originally called 'Ster Century' or something like that -dont know why!!

drapesy wrote: LS1 wrote: I remeber when the Light was all streets!!!! Used to be a great place to park the car down upper fountain street, and motorcyclists used to park under the arch on the headrow entrance just by browns! Thats true! It was originally called 'Ster Century' or something like that -dont know why!! It was owned by a company called Ster Century but they were bought by Vue. I prefer the one in the Light as the screens are better but the parking is about £1,000,000 for 10 mins so I go to Kirkstall.

Yeah true, the night rates are good there but who wants to go there late on at night!I remember Cottage Road with the Balcony before they changed it. Does anyone remember the Dominion or the Kingsway Cinema's?

LS1 wrote: Yeah true, the night rates are good there but who wants to go there late on at night!I remember Cottage Road with the Balcony before they changed it. Does anyone remember the Dominion or the Kingsway Cinema's? I remember the Dominion well - my grandmother used to take me in the school holidays to see Walt Disney films. It has now been flattened.There's another thread on old cinemas at http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... readID=387

Has to be the Hyde Park every time, in my opinion.Favourite memories? Watching Reservoir Dogs there for the first time, in the days when you could drink AND smoke in there. My friend Lucy drank so much red wine that she was sick on the floor. Haha. Happy days.Cottage Road is good too, of course. I think my memory of that has been tainted by the fact that the first film I saw there was First Knight, the Richard Gere / Sean Connery 'version' of the Arthurian Legends. These stories are close to my heart, so when someone does a 'version' like that, it tends to wind me up a little bit.If this wan't my website, I would use a word other than 'version'.

I remember back in the early 80's going to the rugby at Headingley with a bunch of mates & during the match drinking copious amounts of beer ! After the match we made for some kind of hotel that was still serving alcohol (this was in the days before all day opening) by that evening we were in a bit of a boozy state & decided it would be a laugh to sneak into Cottage Rd cinema & watch a film. We made our way to the picture house & some how got past the ticket office without been seen. We ran up the stairs, got into some seats before the usherette could see us & sat laughing to ourselves that we had got away with it, we then sat back to watch the film only to discover that we had snuck in to see Jaws 3 which was a 3d film !!!We couldn't see a bloody thing without 3d glasses. So that was the signal to go home, sober up & think about our actions.

The Leeds cinemas that are no longer there I remember best are the Rex, near Tommy Wass, the Crescent the building of which is still (I remember seeing "How I Won the War" there in the sixties there )and the Pavilion, which was further down Dewsbury Road on the left. I used to go to the Rex regularly, . The Pavilion was already closed, I remember seeing "The Greatest Show on Earth" there in the fifties when I was a kid.I was brought up in Morley, we had two cinemas, one of which "The Picture House" closed in 1960 to become a Fine Fare, the other "The Pavilion" became first a bingo hall, then a night club (After Dark) and then an Italian restaurant, which was only open for about six months and then closed, all the fixtures and fittings, even the glasses are still there behind the bar, it's a mystery to me.