Park Road Cinema / Western Talkie Theatre Bradford

The promoter of the Park Road cinema was Park Road Cinema Co Ltd where its architect, Ernest Dawson, was also managing director with Arthur Crossland the resident manager. On the north side of Park Road (near the junction of the more recent Ternhill Grove and Heddon Grove) and about 100 yards from its junction with the very busy Manchester Road. Surrounded by a densely populated area of Victorian terraced housing and woollen mills and warehouses.  Purpose built of brick with stone dressing and occupying a corner position with its prominent entrance at the corner. Built as a single deck hall with pitched roof. The entrance door surmounted by a half-round window and a more distinctive circular window at first floor level. The small entrance and paybox led directly to the auditorium whose raked floor accommodated circa 900 people. The projection and rewind rooms at the rear at first floor level. The screen was mounted on the back wall and there was one exit door in each side wall near the screen. Beneath the screen end was the boiler room. The interior decoration was a very tasteful Wedgwood blue with white motif

The formal opening of the new Park Road Cinema by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford (Mr E. Siddle) took place on Saturday 22 July 1922. “The value of the cinema today”, said Mr Siddle, “was that it was as eyes to the blind - it had brought many men and women and children to a right understanding of what had previously been strange to them. There was nothing bad in the cinema itself; the good or evil was often in the attitude of mind which was brought to bear on the picture exhibited.”  [Bradford Daily Argus 24 July 1922]

Prices in 1931 ranged from 3d to 8d {Kinematograph Yearbook, 1931]

Reference           Colin Sutton: Bradford Cinema History