West End Cinema
Suffolk Street Queensway and Holiday Street,
Birmingham,
B1 4EW
Suffolk Street Queensway and Holiday Street,
Birmingham,
B1 4EW
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Gaumont-British-Picture Corp., Ltd., Provincial Cinematograph Theatres Ltd., Rank Organisation
Architects: Frederick J. Pepper
Styles: Tudor Revival
Previous Names: Curzon Hall, New Century Picture Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Curzon Hall opened in 1864 as an exhibition hall. In 1899 Waller Jeffs began screening his ‘Living Picture Shows’ in the building which at that time had a seating capacity of 3,000. It was later re-named New Century Picture Theatre as a full time cinema. It was closed during World War I and was used as a recruiting office for troops.
In 1925 it was extensivly altered by architect Frederick J. Pepper and re-opened as the West End Cinema and Dance Hall on 9th March 1925. The opening programme was "Zeebrugge" and Jack Holt in "Wanderer of the Wasteland".
From 1st May 1926 it was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres(PCT) and a Wurlitzer 2Manual/8Ranks theatre organ was installed, opened by organist Charles Willis. In later years the popular organist Reginald Dixon was resident here. From February 1929 PCT were taken over by Gaumont British Theatre Corp. and they operated the West End Cinema for the remainder of its life, via the GB take-over by the Rank Organisation.
Apart from the West End Dance Hall (later named Top Rank West End Ballroom) at the corner of Holiday Street, the building also contained a restaurant for the patrons to enjoy. The West End Cinema was always a popular city centre cinema and during the mid-1960’s it played several 70mm ‘Roadshow’ presentations, including “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines”.
The West End Cinema was closed on 27th March 1965 and the organ was removed. However, the cinema got a reprieve and the Rank Organisation re-opened it a few weeks later. The building had been sold for re-development and it finally closed on 18th March 1967 with Yul Brynner in "Return of the Seven" and Hugh O'Brien in "Ambush Bay". After demolition new studios and offices for Alpha TeleVision (ATV Centre) were built on the site in 1969 and operated until 1973. These have since been demolished and the Crowne Plaza Hotel is now on the site.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
An interesting bit of inf I came across…before the West End Cinema closed, the screening of CLEOPATRA was cut by about 45 minutes because the length of the film would not have allowed people to see it all without missing the last bus! Does anyone else remember this? Does anyone remember how long SOUTH PACIFIC ran there?
A vintage photograph of the West End Cinema, and its Wurlitzer organ:
http://www.ukwurlitzer.co.cc/1358.html
I think South Pacific ran for well over 3 years I saw it there in 1958.
This is a long time after the original post, but Cleopatra was not cut for the West End! The UK release, including the Dominion Tottenham Court Road, was the 3hr 12 min. version rather than the original 4hr 8min cut. As far as I know the longer version was never shown theatrically in the UK, but can be enjoyed in all its glory on Blu-ray.
A chap on Facebook marketplace is selling parts of this organ now!