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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wish that there were more old fashioned cinemas around.

72 replies

Vintagejazz · 10/10/2014 11:26

They all seem to be disappearing and being replaced by large omniplexes, usually located in big soulless shopping centres beside motorways, with vast car parks that don't even feel that safe late at night.

AIBU to secretly long for the nice old fashioned cinemas located on the street, with one or two screens, and people queueing outside to get in and old plush seats and nice middle aged women with torches showing you to your seat and selling a few sweets and small tubs of ice cream at a little counter beside the ticket office.

Now it's all escalators and long corridors and massive buckets of popcorn and super large cokes and it's just not-the-same.

OP posts:

19lottie82 · 10/10/2014 13:08

I live in Glasgow and love the GFT (Glasgow Film Theatre) and The Grosvenor Cinema...... always look to go there rather than the multiplexes.

Original poster

Vintagejazz · 10/10/2014 14:11

I think cinemas have gone the way of shops. Instead of being part of a community where you bump into your neighbours and are on speaking terms with the staff, they're all being supersized and moved to out of the way locations surrounded by enormous car parks.

OP posts:

HerBigChance · 10/10/2014 14:14

I agree, Vintagejazz.

SoonToBeSix · 10/10/2014 14:16

I live near woolton cinema , I love it. They stop the film half way through and the red velvet curtain close and a lady serves ice cream.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 10/10/2014 14:20

Oh I miss that cinema in Oxted - I used to go there with my Mum when she lived up the road in Tatsfield. I remember seeing one of the Jurassic Park ones there and then driving home down all the little unlit country lanes winding each other up that when we got out the car we'd be attacked by pterodactyls (too much sugar I think...)

I like the Vue Grants in Croydon. Okay it's a multiplex, but the bulk of the screens are small so it can feel pretty intimate. I love going to 11am showings on the first day of release if I'm not working, there's usually only about 5 other people and it has a really nice atmosphere.

Darkesteyes · 10/10/2014 14:21

VintageJazz I heard Dave Allen talk about a cinema in Dublin called the Corinthian on one of his shows. Apparently it used to be called the Ranch because back in the 50s they used to show loads of Westerns.

I googled it and it was demolished in 2002

We had a lovely little cinema in our town Went to see ET and Ghostbusters there as a kid.

Theyve turned it into a Wetherspoons.

TheWholeOfTheSpoon · 10/10/2014 14:26

We have an organ playing one too. It only has one screen, but if the film we want to watch is on there, that's our cinema of choice. Best popcorn ever.

Darkesteyes · 10/10/2014 14:30

1 hour and 3 mins in Dave Allen on cinema and the Corinthian

Aherdofmims · 10/10/2014 14:32

Yabu. They are so uncomfortable!

Original poster

Vintagejazz · 10/10/2014 14:34

The Corinthian was on the Quays in Dublin and dated back to the early 20th century. It would have witnessed the 1916 rising, WW11, generations of young couples on their first date who went on to marry and produce another generation who saw their first films in the Corinthian.
I'm not sure what stands on the site now but probably a fast food restaurant, an office block or a nightclub.

OP posts:

AimlesslyPurposeful · 10/10/2014 14:34

MrsDimitri - Agree that going to one of the multiplexes earlier in the day is a nicer experience than in the evening.

Everyman is lovely in the evening. It has a very cosy feel to it and you tend not to get a loud crowd in there.

If I'm taking DS to see a film and we're meeting friends we meet at the Croydon Vue for an early showing - poor old Croydon gets such a bad press doesn't it but it's fine in the middle of the day and we're spoilt for lunch choices with so many restaurants!

HappyAgainOneDay · 10/10/2014 14:35

I hadn't been to the cinema for years (Jaws 1970 something at The Granby in Reading) when a friend invited me to see The King's Speech at the Odeon at Esher 4 years ago. The only unfortunate thing was that bucketloads of popcorn were available to buy. I haven't been to the cinema since.

The Granby (in Reading) was built as a cinema in 1935 and was demolished in 1985. Lots of lovely architecture has been lost. Another was the Central in Reading's centre, a lovely art deco building that was, again, demolished to make way for dreadful, several -storey-high, glasshouse hotels that will never fit in with the other high street buildings.

We ought to blame developers......

MorvahRising · 10/10/2014 14:40

We used to have a lovely one. You could park right outside in the lane opposite and every time you went there would be loads of people you knew.
It was pulled down and made into apartments.

Darkesteyes · 10/10/2014 14:41

Vintage i think its incredibly sad. Like you say that cinema would have seen so much.

Fecking developers .

Honsandrevels · 10/10/2014 14:45

Small cinemas are great when you are an adult but rubbish as a child. In my hometown there was always a huge wait to see new releases. Three Men and a Baby is probably due there next month.

It was charming though compared to new cinemas. There were intermissions where the big red curtains swished across. When I first started going they used to play God Save the Queen when the credits finished. I'm only 35. Oh and you used to buy a ticket, then walk to an unmarked side door, knock and the same cashier would serve popcorn!

PetulaGordino · 10/10/2014 14:45

the jesmond picture house was demolished not long ago

Clawdy · 10/10/2014 14:53

The Savoy in Heaton Moor, Stockport is an independent cinema, less than a fiver a seat, drinks around 50p...family run business,lovely art deco building. Unfortunately under threat at the moment,but hopefully enough community support will save it....

Bunbaker · 10/10/2014 15:03

We have the Penistone Paramount and it is great.

It is small and friendly. They don't just show films, but all different types of stage productions - panto, am dram, comedy, ballet, music. They always have an interval during the middle of a film and you can buy ice-creams or go to the bar and get a cup of tea (during matinees) or something stronger in the evening.

They show the latest films a few weeks after they are released, which is fine by me because I can wait. DD can't so I usually end up taking her to one of the soulless multiplexes in Sheffield.

givemushypeasachance · 10/10/2014 15:06

I like the atmosphere of old fashioned cinemas, but compared to the convenience of having a dozen different films screening at once and maybe two or three screens showing the big pictures every couple of hours so you don't queue up and then still not get a seat at the film you want to see, I know which I'd pick. Comfier seats, bigger screens and being able to park for free out at a multiplex all additional pluses.

I am still shocked at the cost every time I go though. Did a lot of cinema going as a student in Cardiff 2003-6 when there were several cinemas having a price war so it was £3 a ticket (£2 for the film club on Mondays, then don't forget Orange Wednesdays!) and anything more than that somehow seems like extortion...

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/10/2014 15:41

YANBU. I am lucky enough to have one on my High Street and another 2 within a short drive. It is one of the main advantages of living in London.

There are quite a few near me that were gutted to become Wetherspoons :-(

meddie · 10/10/2014 15:58

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186337-d2048752-Reviews-Woolton_Picture_House-Liverpool_Merseyside_England.html

This place is a joy. still have interval with ice cream.

Pilcrow · 10/10/2014 16:18

Alpaca and Petula, the Rex is my local too. I've always wanted to have one of the cheese plates but never quite got round to it (yes, they serve cheese and biscuits which you buy at the bar and is then brought round in the dark when the film has started ).

It does sell out on a regular basis but they have a lottery system every night that has never failed me yet. I've always got in, but maybe that's just luck.

Problem is that it's spoiled me for any other cinema ever again.

PetulaGordino · 10/10/2014 16:21

i miss it pilcrow - used to be within staggering walking distance! i had forgotten about the lottery, i never used it

googoodolly · 10/10/2014 16:24

We have one near us - it's awesome. They have sofas instead of seats and even offer blankets and cushions. You can buy cake and wine/beer/spirits to have during the film too . Two tickets + food and drink is cheaper than two tickets at Cineworld.

Pilcrow · 10/10/2014 16:27

Actually this thread has reminded me that I once went to the Little Theatre Cinema in Bath, which is like being in someone's front room. It was a matinee and there were only about 6 or 7 other people there, who all turned out to be in on a surprise birthday outing, and had arranged with the ice-cream seller (I seem to recall it was an actual old-fashioned usherette tray-thingy) that she would hand flowers and free ice-cream to the birthday girl when she unsuspectingly went up to buy a tub of vanilla.

I felt I'd wandered into their party.

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