Cinema

Situated to the south of Gateshead town centre, construction began on the Team Valley Trading Estate in May 1936. The first factory opened that October, but the estate was not completed until 1938. It was officially opened by King George VI on 22nd February 1939.

It was a large, well-planned industrial environment with a wide range of units laid out along Kingsway, a wide central artery that is almost two miles long. A number of amenities were provided for the workers, including a bank and a post office - and this Cinema, which catered for engineering workers in the Queen’s Park area.

It is thought that the Cinema’s heyday was during World War II. In more recent times the building has been substantially modernised, especially in 2006, and there is now no trace of its previous use.

Manufacturers' organisation Make UK occupied the building for 13 years before leaving around 2025.

It is now (April 2026) being offered for sale for £1.5m or for rent at £175,000pa, and the estate agents are making much of its cinematic past, going so far as to name the building The Picture House.

However, there is disagreement about whether it was purpose-built as a cinema, or whether it was originally a recreation hall - the latter does seem the most likely: it has that “look”, and it has also been referred to as a “welfare facility”.

Hopefully a local correspondent will be able to shed more light on this fascinating, if elusive, cinema.

(It is located off Queensway, near its junction with Second Avenue, which now runs parallel to Kingsway. Regrettably, the Cinema appears not to have featured in the Kinematograph Year Books.)

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