Cromwell Hall

 Соединенное Королевство > England > Lancashire > Lancaster

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May 1973.Location of one of the first cinemas in Lancaster."Cromwell Hall, 1907Cromwell Hall was on the upper floor of a block of buildings in Rosemary Lane designed by RobertWalker of Windermere in 1899 as an assembly hall for the Trustees of the attached CentenaryChurch on St Leonard’s Gate. It comprised shops, offices, a billiard room and the assembly hall.James Atroy came from Preston to supply early moving-pictures from premises in the recently builtAlhambra Theatre in Morecambe and by 1908 he and his wife were renting the Hall to run shortbioscope films (P. Vickers, pers. comm.). Adjacent to the Hall, some rooms were used by theChurch’s Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (PSA) Institute. Parliament had banned cinematographentertainment on the Sabbath. Advertisements in local papers make references to the PSA orchestra.Mr Atroy sold the moving picture rights at Cromwell Hall in 1912 and the films were carried on byMr Michael J.