Pentridge Cinema
Holmes Street,
Burnley,
BB11 3BE
Holmes Street,
Burnley,
BB11 3BE
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The four storey Pentridge Mill in Burnley was built about 1854 for a Mr Lomas on land bordered by Todmorden Road, Holmes Street and Oxford Road; near to where the River Calder passes under the latter. The mill was extended in 1881. In 1909 building approval was given to J. Palmer & Sons Ltd. to operate a skating rink on the second floor of the mill.
In 1910 the same company converted part of the ground floor to a “Cinematograph Picture Hall” which traded as the Pentridge Picture Hall on Oxford Road, Burnley and opened on Monday 29th August 1910. It was actually on Holmes Street. It advertised as “a snug little hall” with “the very latest Pathé machine” (note the singular) and “all comfortable tip up chairs” and showing “the very best of pictures”. Early advertising did not name any films: in addition to the previous quotes the billing gave the prices (3d, 4d and 6d) and times (one show at 7.30 pm with 2.30 pm matinees every Monday, Tuesday and Saturday). There were programme changes every Monday and Thursday. It is not one of the 8 Burnley cinemas listed in the Kinematograph Year Book (KYB) for 1914.
There were extensions and alterations to the cinema. These included removing three internal floors in 1912 and in 1917 creating a new frontage to the cinema and a dress circle at a higher level. The seating capacity was for 1,530 people (according to a recent Burnley Council document). The working mill continued at the rear of the cinema.
In KYB 1927 its owners are Pentridge Cinema Ltd., managing director P. Crossley. By KYB 1928 it was trading as the Pentridge Cinema.
Talkies debuted on Monday 20th May 1929 with Bebe Daniels in “Hot News”. The sound equipment was by Electrocord; and the advertising showed mixed programmes of ‘silents’ and ‘talkies'. The Pentridge Cinema was the first Burnley cinema to install sound on a permanent basis. The Savoy Cinema had run a trial 18 months earlier but had abandoned it as unsuitable; but was to follow the Pentridge Cinema with a top-of-the-range Western Electric(WE) installation in August 1929. The Electrocord system seems to have been inferior to a noticeable degree. The late-comer Savoy Cinema traded on the WE brand in its billing; and the Imperia Cinemal, the third to go sound in September 1929, used billing about WE talkies, hiding the fact that they were going for British Talking Pictures(BTP) kit. By KYB 1935 the Pentridge Cinema had replaced the Electrocord with WE. That edition was also first to give a seating capacity: 1,189
KYB 1936 shows ownership passed to New Empire(Burnley) Ltd. which operated 8 other cinemas in the town (plus 6 elsewhere) from their offices in the Empire Theatre, by then a cinema, on St James’s Street in Burnley. The offices would later move to Rochdale.
By KYB 1954 ownership had gone full circle and the Pentridge Cinema was with Northern Operators Ltd. with offices at Pentridge Buildings on Holmes Street in Burnley; and the capacity was down to 1,177. Northern Operators ran a very small local chain of cinemas. They closed the Pentridge Cinema in 1960, the same year that they closed the Imperial Cinema at the other side of town.
The building still stood in December 2014, very derelict, subject to arson attacks, and near the end of its life, having been the Circulation Club. It was demolished in April 2015 to build student accommodation on the site.
Contributed by
H J Hill
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
The Pentridge cinema building became the EMBASSY CLUB in the early 1960s with gaming tables (roulette, blackjack, etc) and live entertainment (‘blue'comedians and strippers). It was operated by a Norman Smith who also ran the Black Knight Club at Waterfoot in Rossendale.
Many cinemas went down the gaming/adult-entertainment route in the early 1960s, becoming Embassies and Fiestas, but their businesses were adversely affected by the Gaming Act 1968 which ended the more laissez-faire gambling regime.
The reference to works done in 1912 and 1917 was taken from a Burnley Council document dated 2004. I now suspect this is incorrect.
What is definite is that the Pentridge reopened on Thursday 25 March 1920 having been extensively remodelled and enlarged (a balcony) and re-fronted to the designs of William Heap whose Imperial, a new build, had opened about 9 weeks earlier. The layout (balcony, projection room, orchestra gallery, etc) and style are very similar in both cinemas.
The Burnley News report of Saturday 27 March 1920 (see other photos) gave the new capacity as 384 in the ‘balcony’ and 833 in the ‘pit’: total 1217. A number of rear ‘pit’ seats had poor sight-lines because of balcony-support columns.
The building was demolished in April 2015. A student accommodation building will be on the site.