Projects 2012 > City Strata > Journal
On of the interesting elements of the City strata project and cinema history in general is the change in design of these buildings as users, culture and media changed. Having read Dave Stephenson's book on Bristol Cinemas (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bristol-Cinemas-Archive-Photographs-Stephenson/dp/0752436694to help add to our existing data I was intrigued by his description of the Studios One to Four cinema that opened in 1973 at the Pithay.
This was an early multiplex type approach that had 'small studios in one building, all showing different films but using one set of staff'.
Apparently the studios were 'so small that the staff often referred to them as "rabbit hutxches". I've found the original planning application for the cinema that shows how small the spaces were (approximately 100 viewers in each) and also the design concept for the frontage with sample films attached. I particulaly like the glam rock style of the adjoining Stripes nightclub.
Comments
Wow, thanks for these images Peter! I watched Jaws 3 in 3D in Studios 1, 2, 3 and 4 (that's a lot of threes....). The entrance was just to the right of the Bristol Beer Keller. Studios 5,6 and 7 are now the Orpheus Henleaze. (BTW. Cabaret (1973) was the last film shown in the original projection booth of the Curzon Community Cinema Clevedon (in the extant 1922 building) - it's still written in chalk on the wall...) Can these be uploaded to the cinema layer?
Posted by Charlotte Crofts | 30 Apr 2012 at 15.15
I'll be adding these to the layer along with some of the actual plans that show the cinema layout.
Also of interest I met someone from Easton the other day who remembers going to lots of cinemas including His Majesty's on Stapleton Road.
I have her contact details and she will be happy to be interviewed.
Posted by Peter Insole | 30 Apr 2012 at 15.53
Interesting stuff, thanks Peter.
As a cinema loving Bristolian, who has lived in London for the last couple of decades, viewing these old designs gave me a nice little pang of nostalgia.
I have vivid memories of my formative years of cinema going in and around Bristol, with Studios 1-4 holding a particularly fond memory of an occasion when, as a relatively shy secondary school boy, I managed to convince a skeptical ticket lady that both my friends and myself were all 18 years of age, so desperate were we to watch something called 'A Nightmare On Elm Street.'
So emboldened were we by our unexpected success, that plans for a second 'mission' had been hatched before the final credits. Once again Studios 1-4 would be the 'soft' venue. This time our target screening would be Conan in Space -at least that's what we were expecting from the poster advertising, 'The Terminator.' Sadly, that next visit would prove both unsuccessful and somewhat embarrassing, due to the inclusion of a girl in our ranks. Ultimately, this signalled our final attempt at trying to dupe the staff. Already we could no longer suffer the humiliation of being refused a ticket, having to then walk sheepishly past the other patrons and continue along the road until we reached the sanctuary of Mad Harry's, the amusement arcade on the corner.
None of us would get to discover actually how much better than it's poster 'The Terminator' was until, nearly two years later, when it became a must-rent VHS cassette at our new local video store.
Like Charlotte Croft has already noted in her post, I also remember watching Jaws 3 3D and Spacehunter Adventures in the Forbidden Zone 3D at this cinema, during that short lived early to mid 80's mini resurgence in 3D. Whilst hardly of the same technical quality of today's Avatar or Gravity, I distinctly remember both of these as being something you simply had to see as a school boy at that time.
Posted by Jay Sparks (not verified) | 2 Nov 2014 at 15.59
Having read around this site a little, I thought I would just post a run through of what I can remember watching, when and where. I had a habit of collecting ticket stubs for films I would see back in the 80's and early 90's. I can clearly remember the various screenings and venues I would frequent whilst living in Bristol at that time.
ABC New Bristol Centre -Frogmore Street (later, the Canon chain took over).
My earliest memories are of watching Towering Inferno, Zulu, Planet of the Apes (both mid 70's rereleases), Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman The Movie and Battlestar Galactic (presented in Sensaround Sound back in 1979). All of these films were shown on the single, extremely large, curved screen, that the venue was famous for at that time, just a few years before it would eventually be split into two smaller ones.
Battle Beyond the Stars, E.T, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Goonies, Back to the Future, Young Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Witness, Little Shop of Horrors, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Lost Boys, Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Back to the Future Part II and Part III, Joe Vs the Volcano, Always and Batman. All of these films were screened at Frogmore Street during it's time as a two screen venue, all of those listed were watched by my fiends and I.
ABC Whiteladies Road.
Earliest memories here are of watching the following films on family outings. Grease, Jaws 2, Convoy, Smokey and the Bandit, Any Which Way You Can, Hooper, Watership Down, Ghostbusters and Gremlins.
Whiteladies, along with the Watershed, would become the cinema of choice during my initial post school years, were I would watch everything from Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Night of the Comet to Hellraiser, Near Dark, Roxanne, Dragnet, The 'Burbs, They Live and Prince of Darkness to Frantic, Cry Freedom, Empire of the Sun, Do The Right Thing and Goodfellas.
Concorde (previously Her Majesty's) -Easton, Stapleton Road.
I only ever watched one film at this venue, Julian Temple's ill fated, though entertaining, Earth Girls Are Easy. I think this must have been around 1989, as I was at collage at the time. I do recall that the venue itself was in a fairly poor state of repair at that time, you would quite literally stick to the carpet as you shifted in your rickety seat. In hindsight, it was probably the perfect venue for that particular film.
The Gaumont -Baldwin Street.
Once again, I only remember one screening at this venue. I was taken by my father, on a Saturday morning, to watch a monster movie double bill, Destroy All Monsters and... something else that I can't remember. These were circuit re-runs of some of the old Japanese monster films, dubbed in english, from the late 60's and early 70's. Honey to a space monster obsessed child. This would had been in either 1978 or '79. I remember that the cinema had a strange pinkish foyer interior with mirrors etc, could that be right?
I'm fairly certain that my parents took me to see Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks at this cinema, although I have no memory of the occasion.
Odeon -Union Street, Broadmead.
Oh yes, a venue I remember very well from watching Star Wars there, seven times -yes seven!- in 1978. I'm sure my parents did worry there for little a bit. I recall that the Odeon cinema had two large screens and balcony seating at that time. It was a better overall venue than the ABC Frogmore Street -but only after that cinema split its single screen in two. Still on a giddy high from my seven trips to a galaxy far, far away, I was only too eager for more science fiction fare. The Black Hole, Moonraker, Tron, The Empire Strikes Back, Starman, Return of the Jedi and The Last Starfighter, to name but a few.
Again, post school, my friends and I would eagerly await the latest films of the era, Legend, The Running Man, Rocky IV, A View to a Kill, Big, Aliens, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men, Predator, Stakeout, Fatal Attraction, Angel Heart, Good Morning Vietnam, Throw Mama From The Train, Rain Man, The Mosquito Coast, The Abyss, The Last Boy Scout, Jacob's Ladder, Presumed Innocent, Cliffhanger, Last Action Hero, etc, all watched at the Union street venue.
Studios 1,2,3,4 -All Saints Street.
My earliest memory of watching a film at this venue was Blade Runner. This was on it's original release, back in 1982. My older brother took me along as I had behaved impeccably during recent trip to see Tron and he therefore assumed I would be as spellbound in the flickering presence of another 'futuristic/space film' starring Harrison Ford, who was by this time, a virtual god to boys of my age.
Well, Harrison Ford or not, this certainly wasn't Star Wars. What is now one of my favourite films was, back then, to my young eyes, a rather slow paced, dare I say slightly boring, sci-fi story that never actually went into space. It was about robots that never appeared to be robots -at least not in the Star Wars sense of the word- and, what was this? a sic-fi film where nobody had a laser gun! I had to make do with the fact that I was watching some nifty special effects and Rick Deckard instead of Han Solo. I remember that I still kind of enjoyed the spectacle, it's imagery certainly stuck in my mind, but I was a little too young to really appreciate it for what it actually was -a masterpiece.
Watershed -Harbour Side, Canons Road.
I spent many hours frequenting the Watershed cafe/bar and it's cinemas, whilst studying at college. It's always been a terrific venue and a firm favourite of mine. My earliest memory of attending a screening would most likely be Blue Velvet on it's original 1986 release. This was closely followed by Withnail & I, Akira, Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm, Argento's Tenebre (as part of an extreme cinema season), Tetsuo The Iron Man, How To Get Ahead in Advertising, Vampire's Kiss, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Wild At Heart, Shallow Grave -with Danny Boyle Q&A and too many reparatory and late night screenings of classics to mention.
The Orpheus -Henleaze.
The only time I watched films at this cinema was when I literally couldn't find a screening of that particular film anywhere else in Bristol. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this, but the Orpheus at Henleaze was the only cinema in Bristol to screen both Evil Dead II and Clive Barker's Nightbreed, at the time of their initial realise dates.
During the 80's, it was a cinema that I dreaded having to track to. By this time the supermarket next door had sucked up most of the original cinema and now the screens were pretty much the equivalent of watching a film on a laptop, if you were unlucky enough to be sat towards the back of the auditorium. Having said that, back in 1987 I didn't care, I was just desperate to watch Evil Dead II, so I made the trip. The only other excursion was for Clive Barker's Nightbreed, three years later. I never returned after that.
Posted by Jay Sparks (not verified) | 2 Nov 2014 at 20.20