Originally Posted by
PhilipG
SEFTON PICTUREDROME
461* Smithdown Road, Liverpool 15
*(The registered address was 459/461. The cinema itself was No 461).
Opened November 1909
The premises are first listed in the 1894 Street Directory, and were then occupied by Joseph Dunn, a car proprietor. (Car Proprietors were people who had horse-drawn carriages, and/or wagons, for hire). Louise Dunn (Joseph's widow?), a car proprietress, is then listed as the occupant until the 1899 Directory.
By 1899 the site was stables for the Corporation Tramways, and was called "Croxteth Mews". It was described thus in "Liverpool Transport", Vol. 1, by J.B. Horne & T.B. Maund:
"There were certainly stables here and probably a bus shed also. For some years after the horse buses finished the Corporation had a cash office on the site, part of which became a fire station in 1906. The site was freehold and occupied 1210 square yards."
By 1907, John Ansonia & Co. Ltd, Motor Bus proprietors, used the building as a garage. They ran a bus service between the nearby Brook House pub and Woolton, but this stopped in January 1909.
The building was converted into a cinema for the Weisker Brothers. They had leased the premises, and were pioneers in the business of showing films. The former stables reopened in November 1909 (not 1911 as stated elsewhere) as the Sefton Park Picturedrome, with a horses head on the frontage to remind patrons of its former use. (The head is still there.) Apart from being one of Liverpool's first cinemas, it was also probably the smallest with only 275 seats. The first manager (and Licensee) from 23 November 1909 until 1911 was Charles Morrison Riby. In May 1911 he became the manager of the brand-new Birkenhead Picturedrome.
Following Government legislation in December 1909 which had resulted in the introduction of "The Cinematograph Act", 11 January 1910 was the first date that cinema licenses were issued in Liverpool. Premises wanting to show films could not then do so without a cinema licence. Before that date only a music licence was needed (for the piano, or orchestra. The licence issued in November 1909 was for Music only). The Sefton Picturedrome (as it was officially called) was one of 18 Liverpool premises to be granted a cinematograph licence on 11 January 1910.
In 1911 the Weisker Brothers were still the Lessees with Harry Hunter being the Manager (until about 1915). Performances were twice nightly, at 7 and 9, and Matinees were held every day at 3. Afternoon tea was served at all Matinees free of charge to adults in the Tip-up seats (the more expensive ones). There was also "a cosy waiting room provided in Lidderdale Road for Patrons, hence no standing in the cold or wet".
By 1915 the name had been simplified to the Sefton Picturedrome, and it was about this time that the proprietor became A. Sydney, with the lessee and manager being somebody called Nahpthali J. Price, who held the position for about two years.
During 1918 the cinema was enlarged to incorporate 2 garages at the rear. The seating capacity was increased from 275 to 452, and the projection room (behind the horse's head) was enlarged. The work was officially recorded as starting in February 1918 and finishing in August 1918, and was described as an "extensive alteration". The Lessee and Manager of the cinema was then William John Hughes, who ran the cinema until 1928.
In advertisements in one of Liverpool's newspapers, the "Evening Express" in 1922, it was the "Sefton Picture House. The Little House with the Big Reputation".
The Cameo opened in 1926, and the Plaza opened in 1928. Both cinemas were about one mile away, one to the east, and the other to the west of the Sefton. All three were to become Gaumont British (GB) houses.
In March 1928 the Sefton was one of nine Liverpool cinemas to be taken over by Denman Picture Houses, soon to be part of Gaumont-British. Seven of the cinemas were the T.H. Hughes circuit, and the eighth was from the New Century circuit. It isn't clear where the Sefton came from. Presumably W.J. Hughes was related to T.H. Hughes, and it was allied to that circuit. It must have been part of a job-lot because it was the first of the nine properties GB decided to close. This they did in 1929, before they closed the Century in Mount Pleasant and the Dingle Picturedrome, both in 1930. Miss Nellie Hewitt was the last manager of the Sefton, and when it closed she became the manager of the Rivoli in Aigburth Road for a year or so.
It has been said that the building became a penny-bazaar after it closed as a cinema. Perhaps it did, but I haven't been able to find any hard proof. The ledgers of the Building Surveyor's Department record the "Conversion of Cinema into Garage" and this work was carried out during November/December 1935. During the last war it was occupied by "Llama Ltd" who were manufacturers of knitted goods. They were there until the 1950s (ie from c1942 to at least 1952).
"Handyman's Supermarkets Ltd" had the building by 1961 (perhaps earlier) and they are still there (2006).
At some stage what had been the screen end of the building was demolished (after it had ceased to be a cinema), presumably when the school in Lidderdale Road was extended to occupy the demolished part of the former cinema. The building is once again about the same size it was when it opened as a cinema in 1909, and from the street (apart from the plate-glass window) it probably looks very much like it ever did.
In February 1922 plans were submitted of a 2,000 seat cine-variety theatre which it was proposed to build directly opposite the Sefton Picturedrome, on the corner of Gorsebank Road and next door to St Columba's Church. The applicant was a John Morris Griffith who lived in Sydenham Avenue. The architects, Rees & Holt, had drawn up the plans, and there was a garage on the site. Mr Griffith withdrew his application in March, and submitted amended plans in June 1922 of a smaller cinema, with 1,500 seats, again designed by Rees & Holt. This was never built, and there is still a garage on the site. Mr Griffith had just been responsible for the building of the Trocadero cinema in the City Centre. It was Liverpool's largest cinema when it opened in April 1922. It too was designed by Rees & Holt.
There was another unrealised project for a cinema close to the former Sefton - in June 1936. It was to be on the corner of Smithdown Road and Greenbank Road and was designed by A. Ernest Shennan for Bedford Cinemas (1928) Ltd. There would have been a total of 1,960 seats. The building would also contain an organ, a Tea Room & Lounge on the first floor, and a car park. It was to cost £50,000. In May 1937 it was recorded that there were no objections to the cinema, and that the plans had been passed, but in November 1937 it was recorded: "(that) as six months has now elapsed, I write to say that the erection of this cinema has not yet been commenced." The Mabel Fletcher Technical College, Greenbank Annexe was built on the site. In 1999 that building was empty and for sale. More recently a Tesco Express store and a couple of other shops have been built on the site.
The B&W photo is the earliest I have ever seen of this building.
It's early 1970s, and is from the Liverpool Record Office.
The others were taken today (26 Nov).
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