Chapeltown Picture House

Situated to the north of Manchester Piccadilly railway station, Grade II-listed Crusader Mill, that dates back to 1830, was acquired by property developer Capital & Centric in early-2018. It is being converted into 201 apartments; the first residents are expected to move in by autumn 2020.

Meanwhile, in 2019, disheartened by his experiences at the commercial cinema, Jason Bailey, director of street food market GRUB (who used to live next door to the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds) decided to open a more community-focused cinema.

He spoke to Capital & Centric. They didn’t have any large spaces available, but were able to offer him 4th floor loft space, which Jason felt was just right for an intimate cinema.

The Chapeltown Picture House duly opened on Friday 5th July 2019 with half-price (£2.50) screenings all that weekend, which included “Independence Day” (1996), “Back to the Future” (1985) and “Terminator 2” (1991). (So presumably screening from DVD/Blu-ray).

When not in cinema use, the space was used as a Virtual Reality lounge, featuring games such as Fruit Ninja VR and Beat Saber.

The cinema initially operated from Friday to Sunday, the aim being to open it throughout the week when the full premises licence came through.

By the time I visited Manchester in October 2019 the opening days had been extended, and I booked to see the original “The Terminator” on Thursday the 24th (the screening nicely timed to coincide with the opening of the latest in the franchise, “Terminator: Dark Fate”, starring Linda Hamilton).

Unfortunately, the screening was cancelled, with a message saying only that this was due to “circumstances beyond our control”. It was still closed the following weekend, but a further update on its Facebook page said it hoped to be back “next Thursday” (7th November). Since then, nothing.

(When I called round one morning to at least take a look at the exterior the construction work on the Mill was in full swing, so perhaps it simply became impossible or inconvenient for the cinema to operate in that environment.)

The Chapeltown Picture House has re-located to Red Bank in the Cheetham Hill district (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures).

Get Movie Tickets & Showtimes

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.