The Crescent Cinema, Pontefract, September 2015
Introduction:
History:
The Crescent Cinema opened it's doors to the public on the 2nd of November 1926 and was designed by local architects Garsdale and Pennington. Their design consisted of a 2 tier, 1,190 seat cinema, ball room and restaurant, all constructed and decorated in 1920's 'art deco' fashion.
In 1944 Leeds based company Star Cinema's, who would continue to operate the cinema until the 60's I believe when Canon Group took ownership of the cinema. The cinema would sadly close in 1993 after 63 years of service.
Today the top tier of the cinema is in a derelict state, however the ballroom and lower tier snooker club are still in use, which makes the explore a little more exciting.
Pictures:
Further information will be added where required to complement the pictures, as always...
Exterior:
This pic was taken at around 04:00 AM after the completion of my first tour visit with ACID-REFLUX, worst thing is that I was back at work by 08:00 AM the same day... Absolute madness.
As you can see the Building is a classic example of 1920's architecture, looking pretty cool too in the glow of the early morning mist.
The Seating Area:
Let's take a look inside then... What you see here is obviously the seating area for the public, it was nice to see all of the original red velvet seating still in place. Funny to think that my parents where sat in one of those very seats back in 1987...
Notice in this picture the large roof mounted refraction mirror, this if you didn't know, works in the same way as a prism does in a camera. It deflects the light from the projector which is located on the next floor up, down through the mirror sets and onto the screen for viewing. Clever, and different to most places which simply send the light directly from the projection room to the screen.
The Ball Room:
This is an impressive room, the roof and supporting columns are just gorgeous, still retaining there classic art deco plaster work. With the ball room still being in use it's beautifully preserved, the light from the street lamps shining off of the polished floor in the middle of the night is wonderful to see.
The Projection Room & Stores:
This was the best part of the explore for me... Being a photography enthusiast all of the old lenses, and equipment was like Christmas come early, cupboards full to the brim with lenses and two projectors to play with! The original 1940's built Gourmont - Kalee model 12 projector and what I'm guessing is her successor a 1950's/60's built Western Electric projector. Absolutely amazing to see.
Below is the Western Electric Projector, still fitted on the original Kalee Stand in the Projection Room.
And fitted with a nice bit of Zeiss Glass...
Heading downstairs and into the storeroom we're met with an array of lenses and that beautiful original Kalee Projector... All the lenses in the pic below are Kalee built and fit lenses from the 40's...
Works Plate...
And there's more!
Other than the lenses, the store room has a few other pleasant surprises and goodies to inspect. Take this Imperial type writer for instance...
A few other bits...
And that's all from me from here!
As always, Thanks for reading!
TAW
Introduction:
Firstly, a big well done goes out to @Raz for bringing this one to my attention, proper good find this one mate...
Explored on two separate occasions, firstly with @ACID- REFLUX and later on with @BoroLad, and I imagine I'll be going back again at some point too, love it here! I can and have literally spent hours sieving through all of the old lenses and paperwork, the place really is trapped in time, it's like visiting a museum, with the lights turned out...
History:
The Crescent Cinema opened it's doors to the public on the 2nd of November 1926 and was designed by local architects Garsdale and Pennington. Their design consisted of a 2 tier, 1,190 seat cinema, ball room and restaurant, all constructed and decorated in 1920's 'art deco' fashion.
In 1944 Leeds based company Star Cinema's, who would continue to operate the cinema until the 60's I believe when Canon Group took ownership of the cinema. The cinema would sadly close in 1993 after 63 years of service.
Today the top tier of the cinema is in a derelict state, however the ballroom and lower tier snooker club are still in use, which makes the explore a little more exciting.
Pictures:
Further information will be added where required to complement the pictures, as always...
Exterior:
This pic was taken at around 04:00 AM after the completion of my first tour visit with ACID-REFLUX, worst thing is that I was back at work by 08:00 AM the same day... Absolute madness.
As you can see the Building is a classic example of 1920's architecture, looking pretty cool too in the glow of the early morning mist.
The Seating Area:
Let's take a look inside then... What you see here is obviously the seating area for the public, it was nice to see all of the original red velvet seating still in place. Funny to think that my parents where sat in one of those very seats back in 1987...
Notice in this picture the large roof mounted refraction mirror, this if you didn't know, works in the same way as a prism does in a camera. It deflects the light from the projector which is located on the next floor up, down through the mirror sets and onto the screen for viewing. Clever, and different to most places which simply send the light directly from the projection room to the screen.
The Ball Room:
This is an impressive room, the roof and supporting columns are just gorgeous, still retaining there classic art deco plaster work. With the ball room still being in use it's beautifully preserved, the light from the street lamps shining off of the polished floor in the middle of the night is wonderful to see.
The Projection Room & Stores:
This was the best part of the explore for me... Being a photography enthusiast all of the old lenses, and equipment was like Christmas come early, cupboards full to the brim with lenses and two projectors to play with! The original 1940's built Gourmont - Kalee model 12 projector and what I'm guessing is her successor a 1950's/60's built Western Electric projector. Absolutely amazing to see.
Below is the Western Electric Projector, still fitted on the original Kalee Stand in the Projection Room.
And fitted with a nice bit of Zeiss Glass...
Heading downstairs and into the storeroom we're met with an array of lenses and that beautiful original Kalee Projector... All the lenses in the pic below are Kalee built and fit lenses from the 40's...
Works Plate...
And there's more!
Other than the lenses, the store room has a few other pleasant surprises and goodies to inspect. Take this Imperial type writer for instance...
A few other bits...
And that's all from me from here!
As always, Thanks for reading!
TAW
Last edited:
Great pics 
