Originally Posted by
PhilipG
REYNOLDS WAXWORKS
12 Lime Street, Liverpool
1
Reynolds Exhibition can lay claim to being the first establishment in Liverpool to regularly show films. It wasn't exclusively a cinema as
the place was a Waxworks, which had opened about 1858.
Freaks were also frequently put on show.
Reynolds Waxworks showed its first films on
the 31 December 1896, and "The Wonderful Animatoscope Living Pictures" stayed for one week.
Films ("The Cinematograph") returned to Reynolds Exhibition
on 10 May 1897. (They were given equal star billing with "THE LIVING DOLL. A human atom!" This was a 17 months old baby, twelve inches high and weighing
only 22 ounces.) The films then stayed for 19 weeks until 18 September, and it is this period which qualifies Reynolds as Liverpool's earliest (albeit
part-time) film venue.
Films were not to return to Reynolds again for a number of years, but they were a regular fixture by 1910.
"Weekly Courier" 26 March 1910. (Extract).
“The (waxworks) gallery was founded by Alfred Reynolds, the father of the present proprietor, Charles
Reynolds, and the building, with its extensive ramifications, floors and nooks, was originally designed as a temple of Masonry (a Masonic Hall). When it was
nearly ready for occupation a hitch in the negotiations resulted in a dispute, of which Alfred Reynolds took quick advantage, came to terms with the
builders, and speedily opened his "gallery".”
Liverpool Echo, 17 Dec. 1920.
"This morning there has been a deal over Reynolds's
Waxworks, which has changed hands, and will be modernised by Mr Fred Parker, who has left the City Picture House (which was then renamed the Futurist), and
has taken this show-piece."
Photo dated Aug 1921 shows Reynolds Exhibition for sale.
In 1921 - while the
Waxworks was still functioning - there were two separate proposals to convert the building into a cinema. Nothing came of either scheme, and Reynolds
Waxworks was closed in 1922.
In March 1923 the contents of Reynolds Waxwork Exhibition were sold by auction (by Turner and Sons). It was said
that more interest was shown in the costumes than the personalities they represented. Liverpool never did have another Waxworks.
The premises were
reopened in 1924 as Reynolds Billiard Hall, with tables on the upper two floors. The ground floor was used as a tea room, which became the Empress Chinese
Restaurant in the 1950s. The second floor billiard hall reopened as the Marionette Ballroom about 1945, with the first floor continuing as a billiard hall.
Everything closed in 1964 when the building was demolished along with the surrounding property for the Ravenscroft Scheme (St John's Centre).
All the
photos are from the Liverpool Record Office.
The last two also appear in Freddy O'Connor's book "A Pub On Every Corner", Volume
1.
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