Ideal Picture House
106 High Street,
Birmingham,
B14 7JZ
106 High Street,
Birmingham,
B14 7JZ
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Located in the King’s Heath district, south of Birmingham city centre. The Ideal Picture House was opened on 5th February 1913. The High Street entrance was almost adjacent to the Hare & Hounds pub, and led along a long passage to the actual auditorium which was at the rear on York Road. Seating inside the auditorium was on a single floor.
The Ideal Cinema was one of the last cinemas to remain a silent cinema, but was equipped to screen sound films in the early-1930’s. For one reason or another it didn’t survive, and was closed in April 1932.
It was converted into a dance hall, which operated for many years. By the 1960’s, it had re-opened as an independent bingo club named Ritz Social Club. In later years the auditorium was used as a pawn shop, which was destroyed by a fire in late-March 2013. The front entrance part of the building on High Street still operates as an amusement arcade.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
An update concerning this ‘cinema’: dated ¾/13. The information above is not quite correct where it says that the site of the auditorium is being used as a car park for Lidl. The Lidl supermarket is in Silver Street which is the next street along the High Street. Up until last week the Ritz was still standing in York Road. However, unfortunately the Ritz is now having to be demolished as last week it was destroyed by fire.