The Grosvenor Picture Palace Grosvenor Street / Oxford Road All Saints.

The numerous picture theatres of Manchester have been added to by the Grosvenor Picture Palace, All Saints, which was opened on Wednesday by the Lord Mayor. The building is a handsome one, enhancing the architecture of the neighbourhood. It is tastefully and comfortably furnished and has sitting accommodation for eleven hundred persons. Including the purchase of the freehold site, the scheme has cost over £20,000. The pictures are of a high standard, while the music is of the best quality, the orchestra being composed of members from the Halle Orchestra. The spacious basement of the cinema has been sub-let as a billiard hall. [Manchester City News 22 May 1915 Page 9]

Standing on a strategic corner site previously occupied by shops, the Grosvenor Picture Palace was opened in May 1915 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester. Designed in 1913, the cinema was faced in green and cream faience tiles, a material much favoured by cinema architects of the period on account of its decorative qualities and cost. The different styles used on the Oxford Road and Grosvenor Street facades aptly illustrate the material's decorative flexibility. The facades are separated by the main entrance where coupled columns enclosing a loggia are topped with a copper‑covered dome. The name of the cinema is presented in relief in strong upper‑case lettering. The interior decor was described as "Roman Corinthian of the later Renaissance influemce." Claimed by the promoters to be the finest cinemas in Manchester, it was no more expensive than others despite its exceptional attractions.  The seats were of two prices - a shilling and six pence, and the performance started at 2.30 in the afternoon and proceed continuously until 10.30 at night. The seating capacity of the theatre is eleven hundred and it should be stated that the basement has been sublet on lease for a billiard hall, the furnishing of which is to cost £2,000. 

The Middleton Fire Clay Works, Leeds, supplied the whole of the front with their green and white ceramo, a matt glazed terra-cotta, and considered, on account of the ease with which it was cleaned, a most suitable material for town buildings. At the time, the Middleton Fire Clay Works had just completed delivery of the terra-cotta to the Co-operative Wholesale Society’s premises in Corporation-street, Manchester, and were the contractors for the facing material of Fairhaven Congregational Church, near Blackpool, under Briggs, Wolstenholme and Thornely, architects, and for the new café on Central Beech, Blackpool, under T G Lumb. Both these jobs were in white ceramo. They had also just completed a big contract in Vancouver, and had one in hand for Rangoon.

The Grosvenor Picture Palace competed well despite the appearance of newer and bigger cinemas nearby and survived until the 1960s,the last film being shown in May 1968. It continued in use as a bingo hall, then closed in 1990. It was then purcchased by the Firkin chain, who refurbished the building and re opened it as the "Footage and Firkin" pub.

Reference    British Architect 8 May 1914 Page viii - contracts
Reference    Building News 15 May 1914 Page 695 - contracts
Reference    British Architect 12 June 1914 Page x - tenders
Reference    Building News 19 June 1914 Page 869 – tenders