At the Flicks

The new cinema had a set of double swinging doors, a canopy over the entrance and a set of steps up to the entrance. The seating capacity had been increased to 750 and the new cinema also had a balcony, broad staircases and a lounge. It was probably the most outstanding of the town's cinemas at that time.

The West End (Rex) Cinema at the end of its film life.

Yet another of Thomas Jackson's cinemas was the Coliseum on Dudley Road (on the junction of Pearson Street with Dudley Road). The cinema opened on November 14th 1912 with a similar range of entrance prices to the Strand (from 2d. to 6d.). The original building had one storey with a narrow entrance which was set back from the main road. During 1913 a number of extensions and changes were made, including a much larger and more impressive frontage, a small balcony and a pitched roof. A canopy was added later. Like the Picture House, the Coliseum was sold to the Midland Counties Circuit Ltd. as part of the general financial re-arrangements made after Thomas Jackson's bankruptcy. In 1930 the Coliseum was acquired by the Quigley family, the owners of the Olympia.

The largest of the earliest cinemas in Wolverhampton was the Picturedrome which was located at the end of Worcester Street. The plans for the cinema were approved in July 1913 and involved a very elaborate facade with domes, arches and pillars. The auditorium was planned to accommodate over 900 patrons downstairs and over 200 upstairs in the balcony.

The Picturedrome opened in December 1913 but was not very successful in its earliest years. After the First World War it was renamed the Scala. The new cinema had a better management team and showed a wider range of programmes and became relatively successful. However, in 1920, it was sold to Midlands Entertainments Ltd. The new owners failed to make a success of the cinema and in 1925 it was sold to Associated Provincial Picture Houses. On September 28th 1925 a completely refurbished cinema opened with the programme of 'Winning Through' and 'The Mirage'.

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The Scala cinema.

While the Picturedrome/Scala was the biggest of the earliest cinemas in the town, it did not really occupy a central geographical location and this may have accounted for its early difficulties. Whereas, the first cinema in the town to be owned by Associated Provincial Picture Houses, the Queen's, proved very successful and could boast the most socially mixed audience of any of the early cinemas. The reason for the success of the Queen's may have been its definite attempt to meet all the social requirements of its audience (a mixture of sheer elegance and the daring nature of early film shows). The Queen's was designed by a firm of London architects and opened on September 30th 1914. It was located at the top of Queen's Square, next to Lloyd's Bank. It incorporated a tea room as one of its exclusive features. It had accommodation for 1000 patrons and probably offered the most comfortable surroundings in which to view a film in the town at that time. It had three very large arched windows as the dominating feature of its frontage. The arches were located at balcony level. It had a quite elaborate foyer.

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Site of the Queen's Picture House c. early 1914.

The Queen's further enhanced its growing reputation as the respectable people's cinema by employing the town's first uniformed commissionaire, page boys and usherettes. It had an orchestra led by a very respected musician named Alfred Van Dam. By the early 1920's the Queen's had established itself as the town's leading cinema.


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