Oxford Picture Palace

In Mexborough, in the Dearne Valley district of South Yorkshire, the Oxford Picture Palace opened on Monday 21st October 1912. It was owned by W. H. Melton, who was also the manager, and J. J. Woffenden. The picture house was a conversion of old brewery premises, which also included stables, a villa, outhouses and two cottages. The auditorium was 65ft by 40ft and there was a 10ft deep stage. The proscenium was 25ft wide and there were two dressing rooms. There was no balcony, just a steeply raked floor, divided into three separate sections.

There was an orchestra, under the direction of Oliver Barstow. The opening programme included “The Colonel’s Ward”, “a stirring Indian drama”. There were matinees on Wednesday, at 10.30am, and Saturday, at 3pm.

The Oxford Picture Palace closed on 19th August 1916 for the installation of a new projection system. It re-opened on 28th August, now in the hands of Mexborough Theatres Ltd (run by J. J. Woffenden) and with F. J. Parr as the manager.

The Oxford Picture Palace was closed again, from 9th to 23rd November 1931, this time for the installation of a British Thomson-Houston(BTH) sound system. It re-opened with “Whoopee”, starring Eddie Cantor in the first part of the week, and Nick Stuart in “Trapped” in the second part.

After operating through the war years, the Oxford Picture Palace closed on 21st June 1948. This was supposedly for the summer season only, but it did not re-open.

The building was converted into an indoor market. It survived until the 1970’s, when it was demolished to make way for the Mexborough relief road.

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