The Ritz Cinema on Westgate, Sowerby, North Yorkshire, England is a small (180 seat) cinema run by volunteers. The building was originally the Mechanics' Institute for

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological ...

and Sowerby, but was converted into a cinema in 1912. Today, it is probably one of Britain's oldest operating cinemas.

History

Originally the cinema was known as ''Powers'' after Walter Powers, the man who ran the picture house in its first incarnation with

silent movies A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

. In 1927, when the

talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

arrived, he extended the seating in the cinema by adding the balcony. During the First World War, Powers "gave free shows to wounded soldiers". In 1953, the Ritz was purchased by the Star Group which operated over 90 cinemas; during that ownership, the cinema was named Studio One and occasionally ran bingo sessions. The business then closed in early 1972 but reopened under new owners in 1984 (1981 according to one source); that continued until another brief closure in 1994.

Recent history

In 1995, a group of volunteers got together to run it as a social project for Thirsk and Sowerby, initially as a Thirsk Town Council venture, although that management lasted only a year. The business has been fully operated by

volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

since 1996, when the management role shifted to a Volunteer Committee. According to a

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

item in January 2011, this is "the longest entirely volunteer-run cinema in the country". In March 2012, the Ritz installed Digital projection equipment, purchased under a Digital Print Scheme through the

Cinema Exhibitors' Association The UK Cinema Association (UKCA), formerly known as the Cinema Exhibitors Association, is the national trade association for cinema operators in the United Kingdom. The UKCA represents the interests of well over 90 per cent of UK cinema operator ...

(CEA). Better seating, new decor, a new screen and Dolby Surround Sound were also installed since early 1995. In a period setting, the cinema shows current films. The Ritz was closed for some months in 2020-2021 due to lockdowns necessitated by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In early January 2021, the government's

Culture Recovery Fund The Culture Recovery Fund is a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had bec ...

provided a grant of £6,400 to help cover some of the loss.

Filming location

The cinema was used as a backdrop for the filming of the second series of All Creatures Great and Small in June 2021.

References

External links

* {{coord, 54.231255, N, 1.343937, W, display=title Cinemas in Yorkshire Thirsk