Keighley Picture House is a

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

located in

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It opened in 1913 as a receiving house theatre which also showed films, with a large auditorium containing stalls and balcony seating. In years to come it was used for live shows and pop concerts as well as regular film screenings. Sometime after the end of the Second World War, the Balcony was extended, bringing the total number of seats close to 1,000, the second biggest auditorium in Keighley after the Hippodrome/Queens Theatre. In 1954, the independent locally-owned cinema was purchased by Essoldo cinemas and folded into their chain, losing its "Picture House" moniker in the process and becoming "Keighley Essoldo". In or around 1974 the Essoldo chain was absorbed by Classic Cinemas, making Classic the biggest cinema chain in Europe at that time. Classic were responsible for closing and gutting what remained of the venue’s theatre and converting the balcony into a second screen and projection room for the main screen, which is how it remains today. In 1983, Classic went bankrupt and the cinema was acquired from creditors by Bradford Metropolitan Council, who leased it to a small local firm or co-operative venture. This group restored the cinema’s former name, “The Picture House". They in turn went out of business in 1991 and the cinema was closed, but was eventually leased from owners Bradford Met Council by the Northern Morris company and re-opened in 1996. Northern Morris Associated Cinemas currently own and operate six cinemas in the North of England, including The Cottage Road Cinema in Headingley, Leeds, The Rex at Elland, The Plaza at Skipton, The Roxy at Ulverston and The Royalty at Bowness-on-Windermere. The Picture House now has a main downstairs auditorium which seats about 300 and a smaller upstairs auditorium which seats about 90. In 2013 the cinema was upgraded to digital projection in both auditoria, with 2k projection and Dolby Stereo sound.

References

External links

Official Web Site

Cinema Treasures: Picture House
{{Bradford Buildings and structures in Keighley Cinemas in Yorkshire Theatres completed in 1913