Sunday, April 19, 2009

Headingley, Leeds - Cottage Road Cinema

Cottage Road Cinema Headingley Leeds

This photo shows the Cottage Road cinema in Headingley. There cannot be many students in Leeds who have not seen a film in this wonderful historic cinema. I saw several films at the cottage road when I was a stundent here in Leeds.

I have had a love of film since childhood and still see many films on the big screen today. Mostly I watch blockbusters on DVD on my TV but I go often to see art-house, indie and foreign language movies at the cinema. I think I saw Amelie 4 or 5 times at Pictureville cinema in Bradford.

When I first came to leeds there were several cinemas in the city centre, now there is one the Vue in The Light complex. I recall discovering that at the height of the cinema there were I think 112 cinemas in Leeds. Sadly one by one these have all gone and there are very few independents left.

The cottage road cinema has been showing films since 1912, that is before the Great War 1914-18, incredible! Unlike nearly all other cinemas it started life as a stable that was built in 1835 and was adapted into a cinema in 1912 after becoming a motor garage. It started showing films when it was called The Headingley Picture House.

As you can see from the poster in the photo it is showing the classic from 1945 "Brief Encounter" as a one off on Wed 29th April 2009. Brief Encounter is a wonderful film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, directed by David Lean. probably one of the most memorable films not to win an Oscar. I have not seen this film for many years but I love this quote  Laura: I wish you'd stop talking. I wish you'd stop prying and trying to find things out. I wish you were dead - no, I don't mean that. It was silly and unkind, and I shouldn't have said it. But I do wish you'd stop talking.
 
Celia Johnson was married to Peter Fleming, an explorer, writer and brother of Ian Fleming, from 1935 until his death in 1971.  I love his books and have his book from 1936 "News from Tartary" which I recommend to anyone who loves interesting well written travel books.

Something I discovered this year Johnson and Fleming had a daughter Lucy Fleming.  Lucy is best known for her role as Jenny Richards in the 1970s BBC drama Survivors which I loved and saw recently again.  They remade the series last year.

Cottage Road Cinema
Telephone:  (0113) 275 1606
Address:  7 Cottage Road, Leeds, LS6 4DD
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Posted by Paul @ Leeds Daily Photo at 7:00 AM
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4 comments:

  1. I have never seen a movie theatre that looks quite like this! Thanks for the interesting history and information.
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  2. The first that came to mind when I saw the photo was 'historic'. I would love to see a film there.

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  3. I didn't think I'd encounter another Survivors fan on Daily Photo, but there you go. I have to admit I'm old enough to have seen the original series first time round - it was a long wait for it to come out on video then DVD!

    And your cinema - good for Leeds preserving its historic cinemas. There are too many bland mega-plexes in shopping centres.
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  4. Having lived in the south of England since the late 50s and having just found reference to the Cottage Road Cinema I was taken back to a Saturday Afternoon in the mid 50s when pocket money clutched in a young hot sticky hand I went to Cottage Road to see (I think) Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth only to find the Cinema surrounded by fire Engines. It was said that the screen had caught fire and all chance of seeing any thing that day was lost. Later in life I worked for a time as a projectionist and found how easy it was to set alight the old nitrate film if the film stopped in the gate with the arcs lit. Perhaps this is what happend that day all those years ago.
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