Picturedrome

The Picturedrome was built in 1912 as a ciné-variety theatre showing silent movies. It opened in March 1913 as the Holme Valley Theatre. The proscenium is a typical Edwardian gilt affair with a central cartouche above the flattened top. The stage is 5m deep and 7m wide with limited flying. The single flat-fronted balcony is returned to the wall on the right hand side only, facilitating an emergency exit to the rear of the building. The front of the circle is decorated with well modelled plasterwork. The ceiling is a coffered segmental barrel vault executed in pressed tin - a very rare survival for Britain (more common in North America, but see Clevedon Curzon).

From 1967 until 1998 it served as a bingo hall, but re-opened in 1998 as a cinema/theatre seating 200. The revamped auditorium used the front stalls area only, the rear stalls becoming a large bar area. The balcony reached by a single staircase with a tiled lower portion, became a picture postcard museum (Bamforths who produced cards in the town until recently operated the cinema and also produced many films 1913-15).

The exterior, with its pitched gable following the line of the slate roof is typical of a cinema of this period. It has two pairs of glazed entrance doors with a window either side and four windows at first floor level. The date of the building is above the two central upper windows. The flytower is not raised above the roof line and stage access doors are now slightly restricted by a modern hotel built to the rear of the theatre, but still accessible.

The cinema closed in 2007, but following public protests, re-opened in January 2008. From 2009 programming has been largely live music, though films are still shown, and the stage is used for occasional theatre performances.