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Bristol had over 50 cinemas just after World War II, and more still during cinema’s between-the-wars, pre-TV heyday. Images of these myriad lost picture palaces can be found all over the photographers’ site flickr.com: here’s a selection from photographer Stephen Dowle, aka Fray Bentos, who grew up in the city after the war. Additional research: Steve Wright.

Gaumont Cinema, Baldwin Street, Bristol

// Photographed on Wednesday 17 April 1974. As Stephen recalls on his Flickr page: “The programme is a Disney double-bill: ‘Herbie Rides Again’ and the supporting feature (remember those?) ‘Run Cougar Run’. It must have been the school Easter holidays. The bus is on the no. 1 service, Stockwood-Henbury.”

The Gaumont was owned by Rank, at the time one of the two major cinemas owners in the UK along with ABC, who owned the cinema on Whiteladies Road (see separate picture). “The commissionaires and usherettes wore a brown uniform and the in-house film magazine, on sale at the box office, was called Showtime.
“The building opened in 1892 as Livermore's People's Palace. With the coming of silent films it converted to cinema and was renamed The Palace, becoming The New Palace with the arrival of talkies. I think it was still The New Palace when, in 1955, I was taken here for my first-ever visit to a cinema ... also to see a Disney film, ‘Bambi’.”

The Gaumont closed in March 1980 and has been through many changes of use since, most recently as the Sports Cafe. It’s currently unoccupied.

Kings Cinema, St Judes

// Stephen: “Dismantling the canopy, Sunday 29 November 1981, as the preliminary to demolition of the building. I suppose the managements of pop groups choose to advertise with fly posters so that fans are misled into thinking they are participating in something ‘edgy’ and subversive.

“Among those singing beat combos whose posters have been affixed to the boarded-up cinema are The Pretenders, who will be supported by The Flying Padovanis at the Hippodrome on Saturday 6 December; The Human League, The Stray Cats (at the Locarno, Sunday 13 December); The Dead Kennedys, The Exploited (also at the Locarno); and Mr ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne.”

Metropole, Ashley Rd

// Stephen: “‘Are you sixteen?’ Once again the dreaded question, always addressed to me from behind the desk of a box office by a basilisk-eyed middle-aged woman wearing a brown tunic with epaulettes and a pleated skirt hanging from childbirth-widened hips. ‘Ye-eah,’ I lied.

“It was the same every week. Last Saturday it might have been at the Scala on Cromwell Road; the Orpheus, Henleaze; the Globe, Lawrence Hill; or the Vandyck, Fishponds. But on this occasion it was the Metropole, Ashley Road, St Pauls. There was a moment's hesitation, probably designed to make me sweat a little, but the gnarled, age-spotted hand, with its wedding ring grown too tight for arthritic fingers, disappeared beneath the counter and depressed an invisible apparatus. A salmon-pink, two-part ticket was extruded from under a little flap, just in front of the word Automaticket. ‘Shame the devil,’ said the uniformed usher as he tore the ticket and thrust one half back into my hand, ‘I wish I'd looked that young when I was sixteen.’.
“The film I had come to see was ‘Tamahine’, an innocuous romantic comedy starring the forgotten Hong Kong-born starlet Nancy Kwan. I think Miss Kwan's bottom was briefly visible and there were one or two kissing scenes. This had qualified the film for an A certificate, meaning that no one under the age of 16 could see it unless accompanied by an adult. I was never sure what the function of the adult was supposed to be on these occasions.
“The Metropole first opened in 1913 but the structure we see here was a 1938 rebuild. By the time of this photograph, Saturday 20 April 1974, it had been a bingo club for six years. In March 1980 it became a furniture store. It was finally demolished in September 1989.”

The Globe, Lawrence Hill

// Stephen: “The Globe's auditorium seen from a platform of Lawrence Hill Station. The cinema had closed on 7 January 1973; the photo was taken on Tuesday 16 January and the building was demolished during July and August.”

ABC Whiteladies

// Stephen: “‘Indescribable’ is the epithet used by Prof Andor Gomme in ‘Bristol, an Architectural History’ of this tower belonging to the Whiteladies cinema. He then proceeds to describe it in some detail: ‘... square and plain until an octagon takes over, whose principal faces leak down into the walls of the tower in long inscribed panels between which many little mushroom-shaped holes are pierced.’ Those creepy faces, half man, half lion, with ribbons under their hairy faces, put the tin hat on it for me. The whole effect can give you quite a funny turn.

“I attended the Whiteladies cinema on many occasions and passed it literally thousands of times, for it was on the bus route which I worked for many years as both conductor and driver.

“The cinema was opened in 1921 and its architects were La Trobe & Weston. It was what would now be called an ‘entertainment complex’, including a restaurant and dance hall as well as a cinema. The restaurant, called Dick Turpin's Tavern, was always advertised during the cinema programme.”

Odeon, Winterstoke Road, Ashton

// “‘All streamlined curves,’ says Andor Gomme, ‘a really snazzy piece with the air of a gigantic smug bird pushing its breast forward while its wings are demurely folded back and go down the side elevations in long steps.’ Well, you can see what he meant …

“The cinema converted to bingo in 1961 and is currently some kind of children's play centre. The corner turret has become a handy site for mobile phone aerials.”

WITH COPIOUS THANKS TO FRAY BENTOS’ FLICKR PHOTOSET LOST BRISTOL CINEMAS. SEE HTTP://BIT.LY/ON58EW FFI.

YOU SHOULD ALSO VISIT BRIZZLE BORN AND BRED’S FLICKR SET BRISTOL’S CINEMAS (HTTP://BIT.LY/NE7S2B), AS WELL AS THIS ARCHIVE SITE: HTTP://BIT.LY/ONF6Q0

FURTHER READING: BRISTOL CINEMAS (DAVE STEPHENSON AND JILL WILLMOTT, THE HISTORY PRESS, 2005).

Copyright Stephen Dowle 2011.