Report - Scala Cinema Bradford closed 1922!

[Converse1]

Scala Cinema Bradford.

This is an odd one really, the building is still in use downstairs as a church hall but upstairs is a really different story!

I've known about this place for a while now and have been dying to have a look. Not many people know this place was a cinema or what lies behind the closed doors, but eventually my patience payed off and one Saturday morning I got the chance and was allowed to have a good look around. As this building is still very much in use as a church hall, there was no need for comedy entrance escapades!!

Opened in 1913 and closed before the advent of sound films in 1922! After 85 years since it was last used as a cinema what lies above the false ceiling is a real time capsule. This place even has gas lights on the wall!

Loads of info here:

http://www.kingsdr.demon.co.uk/cinemas/scala.htm

Hope you like.....

Outside

The church hall, wonder what's above that ceiling? :

Old Managers office

Corridor

Staircase

Auditorium wall with gas light!

View towards where the screen would have been.

Towards the projection room

As this cinema was attached to a church the priest had his own special little box!

Hooks and gas light

Back wall

Auditorium wall

Projection room no projectors unfortunately

projection room wall detail

The obligatory bog shot!

All pictures taken on Fuji Reala & Fuji 160 NPC colour print film

 

[Highway_Star]

Fantastic! The Gaeity in Whitehaven looks a wee bit like that inside.

The projectors could have been all manner of things, being of the silent era. However as it's Bradford, which isn't far from Leeds, which is where Kershaws were located, I'd wager it'd have had Kalee machines of some description, something like the Model 8 on this page cinephoto.co.uk . These are silent machines, but were adapted in later year to accomodate sound, hence why they'd be removed and utilised elsewhere. Bloody dangerous things, the flicker shutter is in front of the lens and uncovered, many an operator lost flesh to those beasts.