Picturedrome celebrates 100th birthday
100 years since the founding of The Picturedrome, Kettering Rd. Colin Richardson.
NOW one of Northampton’s best known pubs, The Picturedrome this year celebrates its 100th anniversary.
During the century the property has taken on many guises, first as a ‘picture house’ or cinema, and later as a Bingo club and laser game centre.
Finally, in the 1990s, the property stood empty until the Richardson family bought the premises, refurbishing and transforming the building to restore something of its original appearance.
Colin Richardson recalled: “I can remember as a child seeing Gone With The Wind at that cinema, I lived across the road and I remember going across there, I was probably only eight-years-old. I think I went with my mother.
“Then it went from Picturedrome to bingo and from bingo to Mr Jelley’s and eventually it went to Quasar. Then it was empty again.”
The family had owned a pharmacy next door but, when the former doctor’s surgery in Kettering Road moved, they found it hard to sell the building.
Then Colin had the idea of buying the Picturedrome building itself.
He said: “I think it was the catalyst to the regeneration of that area. When we took the building on it was in a pretty bad shape, it had been gutted and vandalised inside. Someone had gone in and vandalised it so everything that was in there had been destroyed. It was really a cavern with a lot of vandalised destruction.
“But as a child I had been to the cinema and I could remember what it was like.”
Putting in a large screen and a frontage which is reminiscent of the original, The Picturedrome is now a working pub which hosts regular bands and comedy nights.
Yet the business also remains true to the property’s original role as a cinema by holding regular film screenings as well as showings of movies made by local producers and film students.
But what of the venue’s early history?
The Picturedrome was originally opened on November 20, 1912, when a gathering of more than 400 friends of its builder, the late Charles Robinson, attended for a special showing.
Charles had been a leading stone mason at the time and his yard formed the site of what would be his new Picturedrome.
He is reported to have told his son Edgar: “I am going to build a picturehouse here” and, ignoring any scornful remarks from friends and acquaintances, he carried his plans through to fruition.
Opening in 1912, the Picturedrome opened as a business at one of the most important times for the development of cinema everywhere.
Initially using simple, one-reeler films, it attracted large crowds.
Early films were shown to musical accompaniments and even hidden sound effects such as scrubbed sandpaper were used to create the effect of the sea or peas rolled in a barrel to represent rain. Coconuts were even clapped together to represent horses’ hooves.
Later a solo piano was added to with string and wind instruments in a full band.
One highlight in the early life of The Picturedrome was when the venue became the first in the county to install a panoramic wide screen, measuring 26ft by 14 ft.
A journalist at the Northampton Independent reported the story saying; “One disadvantage with the new wide screen is it does tend to emphasise any defects in a film, particularly where the cameraman has ‘cut off’ part of an artist’s head in a middle distance shot.”
After Charles’ death, his son took over the cinema until 1935. Then Mr H.D Pasco took on the business, running it until its closure as a picture house in 1958.
The Northampton Independent reported at the time: “Although no official explanation has been given by the owner Mr H.D. Pascoe, it is almost certain that the heavy burden of taxes and levies still carried by the industry is the primary reason for its closure.“
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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TheCount
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 01:55 PMHow Ironic that "Although no official explanation has been given by the owner Mr H.D. Pascoe, it is almost certain that the heavy burden of taxes and levies still carried by the industry is the primary reason for its closure"...could apply to most of the closed pubs round Northants now. Long may the picture drome be open though, it's a cut above the other pubs in the town.
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