Hillsborough Picture Palace

In the Hillsborough district of Sheffield, on Bradfield Road, between Regent Court and Langsett Road, a former gymnasium owned by Joseph Wordsworth & Sons, steel wire manufacturers, was converted into a cinema and variety hall.

1. 1. Brothwell, a mineral water supplier, had sought to open a music hall in Burton Street, Hillsborough in 1907, intending to call it the Tivoli, but had been rebuffed by the licensing justices, who considered the building to be quite unsuitable. Turning his attention to the gymnasium, he carried out a series of works from December 1908 to March 1909, with the Hillsborough Palace of Varieties being able to open towards the end of February 1909.

Programmes consisted of up to seven short films plus one or two variety turns. Admission was 2d, 3d and 4d, but apparently children could get in if they traded a stone jam jar (interestingly, not a glass one).

Before the hall could be licensed under the new Cinematograph Act, a fire-proof brick projection box had to be constructed. Another stipulation was the installation of a telephone; while this work was carried out, non-flammable films were shown.

Although the authorities were probably never all that happy with this building, the devices controlling the projection box shutters did work effectively on 28th February 1911, when the film caught fire at the close of the first evening performance; the audience remained oblivious to the unfolding drama.

By this time the hall had become known as the Hillsborough Picture Palace, and it is possible that variety turns had been dropped. However, from 27th March 1911 ‘pictures and variety’ were offered at Hillsborough’s newly opened, and much better equipped, Phoenix Theatre (see separate Cinema Treasures entry).

Brothwell, who had invested much of his capital in the ill-fated Tivoli, did not have the financial reserves to endure, and the Hillsborough Picture Palace most likely closed during May 1911. On 29th June 1911 Sheffield Bankruptcy Court was told that takings had fluctuated between £11 and £20 per week, until March 1911, but then slumped to £6-£8, while expenses were nearly £16 per week. Brothwell’s assets amounted to £47, while his liabilities totalled £260. Sadly, this was the end of his theatrical adventures.

Hardly ever any kind of “Palace”, the building was used for industrial purposes before being demolished.

(Principal research by the late Clifford H. Shaw.)

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