Cinecenta & Penthouse Cine Club
12-16 Cheapside,
Bradford,
BD1 4HP
12-16 Cheapside,
Bradford,
BD1 4HP
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The scanned photo shows the view from Forster Square towards Cheapside, with the cantilevered former showroom housing the two auditoria (Penthouse Club and CineCenta; the latter nearer the camera). They had separate entrances at pavement level at opposite sides of the station opening. The Penthouse Club’s is visible on the far corner; the CineCenta’s is hidden behind a lamp post and the “Electricity” showrooms.
“Purpose-built” is wrong. In the 1960s a new, speculative shops/offices development was built across the front of Forster Square railway station, bridging a high and wide entrance opening to the latter. Above that opening were high extensively glazed units in a feature which projected out from the façade of the building and which stood empty for a very long time. Eventually, they were blacked out and converted into two small cinemas. The projection room was above the two small auditoria and used periscope projection. One had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the cinema!
(Cinemas in shop units: that’s how it all started.)