Quote Originally Posted by PhilipG View Post
REYNOLDS WAXWORKS

12 Lime Street, Liverpool

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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



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Thank you so much for this! I have only just noticed it on here....it's inspirational in this day and age that somebody can go to

so much trouble for someone else, purely for selfless reasons....