Palladium Picture House

When I saw this empty property on Kirkgate in Ripon I immediately thought that it must have been a cinema. The cinema treasures website soon yielded the background.

The Palladium Picture House was opened in early-March 1916. It was originally an old coach house, which had been converted into a cinema, parts of the walls of the earlier building were incorporated.

The Palladium Picture House was closed in 1936, and was rebuilt to the plans of Nottingham based architect Reginald W.G. Cooper, in an Art Deco style. It had 910 seats in stalls and circle. There was also a 30-foot deep stage behind the 30-foot wide proscenium arch, and there were three dressing rooms. Variety was sometimes presented. The facade was executed in a fashionable streamlined Art Deco manner which, it has to be said, does not blend in with the rest of Kirkgate. It was later controlled by a Leeds company Associated Tower Cinemas Ltd. that controlled the Lounge Cinema and Cottage Road Cinema in Leeds.

The Palladium Cinema closed in 1982 with Clint Eastwood in 'Firefox', and was converted into a nightclub, in 2002 known as Sly’s and by 2009 Matrix. It was closed 31st December 2015.