How the magnificence of Moston’s cinematic history is being replaced with ‘little boxes’
By regular contributor Dorrie Bridge
Silver screens will flicker on in the long goodnight of entertainment history. But in Moston, Manchester, where I have lived all my life, these ‘stars’ are being extinguished.
The MIP, The Adelphi, The Fourways and the Victory, are all gone for faceless flats and apartments.
We are losing grand elegant Art Deco buildings, electric theatres, screens of dreams, for little boxes of non-entity.
The concrete jungle has become reality.
Why are the powers-that-be allowing this to happen? There has been a sea-change in Manchester in recent years and old Victorian warehouses and tenement blocks in Salford have been turned into luxury – and sometimes affordable – living.
So, why aren’t they protecting the facades and memories of some of the most beautiful buildings in our town?
The cinema I remember best is the Moston Imperial Palace – the MIP. It started as an Edwardian music hall and around 1916 became a ‘picture house’ catering 925 people.
The last film to be shown there was apparantly The Cruel Sea, starring Jack Hawkins.
Today it is a bustling food market.
But it is not only the history of cinema which is being wiped in this ancient enclave of Manchester … remember Hough Hall?
This sixteenth century mansion was bought by the once-leading cinematic and video artist Roger Barnard.
But soon that too will be lost.
Fahrenheit 451 was a dystopian film. about the burning of books.
And metaphorically speaking that has come true with the closure of so many libraries. Nobody needs books any more, they just download them from that vast emporium in the sky.
Nobody really needs big imposing cinemas any more either – films can be streamed and watched in the insularity of your own home. No need for a grand gathering of a thousand people to share the drama and the visual excesses of From Here to Eternity or The Great Escape.
But isn’t that a loss too? Surely, grand gatherings and shared experiences are part of the roots of stable societies.
***
Do you know, as I look back on the streets of Moston the moonlight serenades me – it glistened on the orderly privet hedges and on the sanctuary of our homes where there were hot coals in the grate, the armchair and the wireless, cocoa.
We’d been to the pictures and it had been exciting – a cowboy which I liked, especially the horses. Gene Autry, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum.
I grew up watching films.
But in l953 the Royal Wedding came along wrought changes that would outshine the silver screen. The rot for the picture house set in.
If you could afford it people got a television. One neighbour in fifty soon had one and the rest poured into those houses to see the wedding.
People still went to the cinema for the big screen though.- cinemas was still the home of technicolour dreams. And stars like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra shared their talents and their colourful lifestyles.
There became mesmerising giants 10 feet tall!
But the old stars like James Mason and Olivia de Haviland and Clark Gable weren’t burnt out yet.
***
The first cinema to go in Moston was The Victory. ‘It burned down’, was all I was told as a child during World War II. In fact it was bombed by German aircraft. It was a fierce blaze.
Then the MIP turned into an indoor market with its little cafe. Meanwhile the Adelphi turned into a Bingo Hall, with an Art Deco facia.
The old Adelphi was left standing but became a ruin, though it was still identifiable – the big screen ad the posh tiered seats area.
Today the Art Deco frontage still stands, dilapidated of course, and the the DIY firm that took it over has moved. Will anybody ever think of trying to restore at least part of this icon of cinema?
The Adelphi was initially a tin hut named The Empress on Dean Lane around 1914 or a bit later.
I can only imagine the black and white, silent gems accompanied by the emotive, dramatic piano jingle. A new Art Deco building was standing there by l937. This seated 1312. In l962 it went the way of so many. .
The Fourways emerged into our walking distance in 1939, again with a large seating capacity. It’s last film was ‘Live and Let Die’ with Roger Moore in the lead. It was by then1973. It was demolished and turned into a block of flats named Fourways Walk.
How long before the last vestige of old Moston disappears from our cloud of memories?
#Moston #Manchester #cinema #history #Adelphi #Fourways #MIP #Victory #LizTaylor #RichardBurton #JackHalwkins #MarlonBrando
14 Replies to “How the magnificence of Moston’s cinematic history is being replaced with ‘little boxes’”
David Silver
I remember the Fourways cinema — it was opposite my secondary school in Manchester 10. However, I grew up in Hightown, Manchester 8, and had seven cinemas within walking distance of my house.
David Silver
Hightown was next door to Cheetham Hill where most of my local conemas were situated. If I didn’t fancy a walk to the pictures I’d get on a bus for the short trip into Manchester city centre which had several cinemas to choose from.
P.S. No, Leigh, I cannot recall the cinema that became a scrapyard although my family was rehoused off Oldham Road in Miles Platting after Hightown was demolished back in 1969.
The Victory was bombed in the war there was a massive hole in the centre inside.we used to go in there after the war playing till the police came and chucked us out..around 1946/47.
Where abouts was the Victory Patricia? i think it must have been knocked down before i was born!
There was a chippy just to the left of this shot. I used to call in there after finishing in the lightbown pub. Sad to see how it has deteriorated.
I remember it too … and the lightbown! Didn’t you work there for a while – i remember something about you changing beer barrels!
Julie Woolley
Thank you for sharing!!! Such a shame when heritage just lives in the memory
Margaret Dunne
Very interesting post. I never knew the Fourways was a cinema. I always thought it was a crossroads that went 4 ways lol.
Keith Pritchard
Margaret Dunne really? Used to go there every Saturday mornings for the matinee, great fun. Maybe 1967-69. Think I saw a couple of Bond movies there early 70s
Betty Halfpenny
When I lived over there in the 40’s it was a cinema. Went all the time see some wonderful films. I remember it being built.
Julie Franklin
My mum used to work as a cleaner at the Adelphi
The Urban Collective
Yes I do indeed know a few of these places and I personlly covered Hough hall as you know from from your write up on it Leigh G Banks. Im gonna look into the one’s mentioned here though. It’s blatantly obvious to me that with the current situation and what has been stated in this wonderfull read and the fact that I cover the demise of the social gathering ground’s myself’ is that there seems to be an (ulterior motive) towards the abolition of freedom/socialization. Especially with the influx of our technological advances. I mean why go anywhere now when we can have it all in one place. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements for the simple life and the propaganda is now telling us staying at home will keep us safe, however, I fear something far more sinister lurks beneath the surface and have done for a long time “John Carpenters They Live springs to mind”. Anyway that was a wonderfull write up and I thouroughly enjoyed reading it even though the subject matter is so deppresing …
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