Hale - Hale Cinema

The construction of Hale Cinema was the subject of much controversy. Nevertheless, it was built, despite the strong protests of Hale residents, and it opened ten years after the first plans were submitted in 1913. It quickly gained popularity and was much lamented when it was demolished in 1978.

The first proposal to build a ‘Picture House’ in Hale came from a Dr. Ernshaw, J.P.. The plans,[1] drawn up by architects Greenall and Cole[2] of 77, King Street, Manchester, were submitted to Hale Urban District Council in July 1913 and were formerly approved by the Council on 18 August that year, on the grounds that they complied with building bye-laws.[3]

The cinema was proposed to be situated on the corner of Leigh Road and Ashley Road on the site of Ollerbarrow Farm. News that it was to be built was published in Kinematograph Weekly.[4]

Public opinion, however, was strongly against this proposal and it was opposed as Hale residents thought it would encourage undesirables. A delegation of Hale residents, ratepayers and some members of the Council acting privately met with Mr Sam Thompson, a solicitor, who owned the land.

In response to forceful representations and a desire to preserve the character of Hale, Thompson decided not to sell the land for the purposes of constructing a cinema. [5] Consequently, the planned cinema was never built.

The First World war intervened before further proposals for a cinema in Hale were put forward. In 1920 a proposal for such a development went to the Altrincham Urban District Council to make use of a plot on the Hale/Altrincham Border.[6] This was on the corner of Willow Tree Road and Ashley Road.

It is interesting to note that some of the plans and notices of intention to build have the word ‘Hale’ crossed out and replaced with ‘Altrincham’,[7] even though the proposal came from a company named Hale Pictures Ltd.[8]  This may have been because planners were wishing to downplay the potential controversy of a picture house in Hale. The intention to build this new cinema was noted under ‘New Kinemas and Extensions’ in Kinematograph Weekly.[9]

However an unusual feature of the Hale Cinema, when it did get approval and was built, was that the boundary between the two councils passed between the screen and the front row of the stalls, [10] which meant that the audience were in Altrincham watching a film that was being shown in Hale!

At the Building Committee meeting of Altrincham UDC in June 1920 it was agreed that the plans were in accordance with the bye-laws, but the plans were not approved at this stage as the Committee considered that the exit doors were not sufficient.[11]

In July 1920 the Council served an order under Section 5 of the Housing (Additional Powers) Act 1919 on Hale Pictures Ltd. as the Committee members were of the opinion that it was “a luxury building”.[12] It was stated that building such a construction would divert labour and materials for the construction of housing which was considered of greater public importance in the aftermath of the First World War.[13] This order delayed construction for a further six months in December that year.[14]

In 1922 Kinematograph Weekly reported that the Ministry of Health, responsible for housing, had held an inquiry under the 1919 Housing Act to enable Hale Pictures Ltd. to proceed with the erection of the cinema.[15]

Right up to the last minute before opening there were set-backs to the cinema starting to operate. There was concern that the plans had not been fully approved, as there were discrepancies between the plans and the actual building.

Although some of the suggested improvements had been carried out, it was felt that the stairway leading to the gallery was dangerous on account of the width of the tread and rise, and it was proposed that a fire escape should be erected outside the building.[16]  

In January 1923 Hale Pictures Ltd. applied to the magistrates for a cinema licence and a licence for public dancing, singing and music. The police objected to the café being licensed, but the Bench granted a singing licence, provided that no comic songs or character singing took place. The magistrates’ concern was to prevent the place becoming a variety show.[17]

Once the cinema opened the local paper congratulated it for its ‘splendid bill of fare’ on offer in the first weeks. [18]

The Plans

The new cinema was a mixture of architectural styles. Externally, it was essentially a Mock Tudor design, but in the Cheshire style, to make it blend in with other buildings in the area. Internally it contained features, such as the decorated plaster work, which would be considered to be Art Deco.

The Architect for this project was William Thornley, MSA (1876 – 1933) of Wigan and Blackpool. He was born in Bolton and died at Salford Station, after collapsing in a railway carriage.[19]

He designed quite a number of cinemas, including the New Curzon, Hulme and the magnificent Art Deco style Plaza Cinema in Mersey Square, Stockport, opened in 1932, for which Thornley was asked to adapt the plans for the Regal Altrincham, designed by Drury and Gomersall, for the substantially smaller Stockport site without reducing the seating capacity.[20] https://stockportplaza.co.uk/heritage-restoration/history/

As already discussed, it was a long and involved process to gain official approval for the construction of this cinema. The first plans for the new location were drawn up in April 1920 and submitted with a Notice of Intention to Build dated on the twentieth of that month. The building was to be a steel framed construction, with brick walls and slated roof.[21] A second set of plans were drawn up in December 1922 and these were approved by Altrincham Urban District Council on 11 January 1923. These were substantially identical to those submitted in 1920.[22]

Amongst the plans was a proposal, submitted to the Altrincham UDC in November 1925, and accompanied by a letter from National Benzole Co. Ltd., to install a petrol filling station with four pumps on the corner of Willow Tree Road and Ashley Road.[23] However, no photographic evidence has been located that confirms that this was ever constructed.

Alterations to the seating capacity on the cinema balcony were proposed the early 1930s. The architects for this work were Heywood and Ogden, 1 St Peter’s Street, Oldham.

In 1931 a submission was received from Hale Pictures Ltd, Cinema House a & Café, registered office, 4 Exchange Buildings, St Mary’s Gate, Manchester to alter the steppings of the balcony to improve seating comfort by reducing from the existing nine rows of seats to eight, thus increasing the space occupied by each seat and reducing the theatre capacity by twenty-six persons. All constructional work would be carried out with incombustible materials. This was approved by Altrincham UDC in March 1931.[24]

In 1961 further improvements, costing about £12,000, were carried out at Hale Cinema, one of the theatres in the G.B. Snape group based in Manchester. These were carried out in response to ‘the battle with the little screen’ to attract people away from the comfort of their homes back to the cinema.

The Theatre was completely redecorated and reseated. Accommodation was reduced from 890 to 800 to increase comfort by providing more leg room. A new oil burning boiler was installed to replace the coke-fired method. In the projection room AEI Xenon electric lanterns to improve consistency of light on the screen and new sound equipment also from AEI have been installed.[25]

The Opening Ceremony

The cinema was opened for public inspection on Boxing Day 1922.[26] The opening ceremony included all the VIPs from the district and the cinema quickly became very popular.[27]

According to Hale Resident Mr Edgar Puckin, ‘The opening had to be cancelled due to a problem with fire regulations. When everything was in order there was no time to advertise, a man went through the streets ringing a bell to announce the opening.’ [28]

In the early days of Hale Cinema the films shown were silent films.   ‘…an orchestra pit was provided and orchestral accompaniment to the silent films was under the direction of Mr Norman Elwin…’.[29] There would have been musical interludes between films and, ‘…later in the 1920s there was a full augmented orchestra with conductor Mr. G. Miller-Johnstone and solo violinist.[30] It would have been quite a challenging task for the musicians and conductor to fit their music to the action of the film.

George Miller-Johnstone was also the first manager of Hale Cinema. He had formerly been the Principal at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.[31] He served in the Artillery and the RAF during the First World War and gained a commission as Captain.

In 1928 he left Hale Cinema to become manager of the Queens Kinema, Cardiff.[32] Soon after he departed the cinema technology moved on and, ‘By 1930 all films were ‘talkies’ and most were still in black and white, but often the film shorts of 10 – 15 minutes, run after the newsreels, were in colour’. [33]

Amongst the early films shown was “The Lilac Sunbonnet”, a 1922 British drama, which was available on 23 March 1923.[34] George Miller-Johnstone reviewed some of the early films shown at the new Hale Cinema for Kinematograph Weekly. In May 1923 two films received the wisdom of his opinion:

“A Fool There Was”, a 1915 American silent drama which popularised the term ‘vamp, short for vampire, was, according to Miller-Johnstone:

‘A very powerful drama excellently staged which grips the audience from start to finish. The acting of Lewis Stone is of the highest and most authentic order. Estelle Taylor’s study of the vamp is a screen classic. The dullest audience is gripped by this film and the most intellectual audience is given something to think and talk about. Altogether a most remarkably fine film.’

A French silent film from 1922, “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”, based on Oscar Wilde’s short story of that title, was not so well regarded by Miller-Johnstone: ‘A whimsical story with a fair cast, acting generally fair, photography poor in places. Its entertaining value is negligible.’ [35]  

Operation of Cinema

The cinema had a staff of about sixteen and this included three page boys who wore uniforms.[36] One of the page boys, Mr Percival, went on to become the projectionist. Brian Hobson was projectionist in the 29 years leading up to closure. Both were kept busy as, ‘There were three shows daily, except on Sunday. Seat prices were 2/- and 1/- including tax, later reduced to 9d, 1/-, and 1/6.’ [37]

In Hale Civic Society’s publication, Hale and Ashley - The Past 100 Years, Mrs L. Bailey recalled how nice the café was, with afternoon tea served by waitresses with black dresses and white aprons and caps.[38] This was converted to a bar at a later date.

All kinds of people attended the performances, included the occasional celebrity. ‘In the 1930s George Formby, who lived at Mere, used to visit quite often […]’.[39] A children’s BBC T.V. series called ‘Potter’s Picture Palace’, which ran from 1976 – 1978, was filmed at the cinema. It was based around Peter Potter, a boy who inherited a cinema and his endeavours to keep it running.[40] Series 1, Episode 1, which also shows the interior, can be seen on Youtube.[41]

The cinema was decorated for the Coronation of King George VI in 1937, [42]and arrangements were made for children from Hale schools to see a film at Hale Cinema House as part of the celebrations.[43] 

In 1967 the Altrincham Watch Committee took a unanimous decision to allow the controversial film of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” at the Hale Cinema, making it the first in the area to do so.[44] On some occasions there were showings of opera or ballet, sometimes with special arrangements for dinner at a hotel before the show.

An advertisement for the Easter Week for 1923 included a showing of the Grand National and a Live Orchestral Concert, as well as a Harold Lloyd Comedy.[45]

The End of Hale Cinema

The popularity of cinema declined in the nineteen sixties and seventies with the introduction of colour television in the home. Various plans were proposed for converting Hale Cinema to a different use.

In 1976 two versions of a plan were put forward to Trafford Council by the Cinema’s owners, the G.B. Snape Group of Companies, to turn it into two small cinemas and to construct two squash courts.[46] However, despite approval being recommended for one of the two versions of the plans, these proposals did not materialise. [47]

Further plans were put forward in December 1977 by Liverpool-based Churchill Properties Ltd. for it to become a centre for selling frozen food.[48] This last one was violently opposed with a residents’ group being formed, chaired by Mr Maurice Hamlett, a builder who lived opposite the cinema. It was felt that turning the building into a commercial centre would substantially alter its character. Hale Traders’ Association was also opposed to it, with one member stating that, ‘The cinema has been here for so many years it is a part of Hale, and I should not like to see it go….’. [49] Objections also came from Altrincham and District Chamber of Commerce who were concerned about the proposal’s effects on small traders, and Hale Civic Society who felt that any change of use should reflect the building’s recreational purpose.[50]

Little did Hale residents and traders recognise the irony of their objections to losing the cinema, give the battles over its construction in Hale in the earlier part of the century! However, their objections prevailed, and the proposal was turned down by the Planning Committee members in March 1978.[51]

Rumours about the future of the cinema were rife in the Altrincham Guardian of 4 May 1978 and the owners confirmed that it would close but no date had yet been set, though the mystery about its closure increased when the same newspaper revealed that advertisements for the next week’s film, Abba the Movie, had been withdrawn. [52]

The cinema closed to the public on 6 May 1978.[53] There is general agreement by contributors to a post on the ‘Altrincham Today’ Facebook site that the last film to have been shown at Hale Cinema was “Abba – The Movie”.[54]

This advertisement from the Runcorn Guardian shows that it was scheduled for 20 April 1978. It is quite clear from the post that the cinema was very fondly remembered as a lovely building with a beautiful interior, and not just for their first dates and what happened in the back row!

The building was demolished soon after this final performance and the site is now occupied by apartments known as Hale Court.

Author: Richard Nelson, Volunteer, Trafford Local Studies

Further Research

You can find more building plans and archival records using the Trafford Local Studies catalogue

Sources

[1] The plans for the proposed 1913 cinema are available to inspect by appointment at Trafford Local Studies, Sale.

[2] John Benson Greenall (1890 – 1970) and Leopold Edmund Cole (1890 – 1937). https://thenewwiperstimes.com/2019/05/28/deanbradleyhouse/ [Accessed 15 Apr 2025].

[3] Plans for ‘Proposed Picture House at Hale’, Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/HAL/1913/2/858.

[4] Kinematograph Weekly, 28 Aug 1913, p. 93.

[5] R.N. Dore, A History of Hale, Cheshire – From Domesday to Dormitory, Altrincham, John Sheratt and Son Ltd. For Hale Civic Society, 1972.

[6] Douglas Rendell (compiler), Cinemas of Trafford – A Souvenir of 100 Years of Cinema, Altrincham, Douglas Rendell, 1998.

[7] Plans, Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1932/2/4/8.

[8] Plans, Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1922/2/780.

[9] Kinematograph Weekly, 18 Mar 1920, p.197.

[10] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976.

[11] Minutes of Altrincham UDC, 4 May 1920, Trafford Local Studies, ALT/1/1/1/3/7, 1919 – 1923, p. 126.

[12] Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser, 2 Jun 1920, p.4.

[13] Minutes of Altrincham UDC, 6 Jul 1920, Trafford Local Studies, ALT/1/1/1/3/7, 1919 – 1923, p. 155.

[14] Minutes of Altrincham UDC, 7 Dec 1920, Trafford Local Studies, ALT/1/1/1/3/7, 1919 – 1923, p. 228.

[15] Kinematograph Weekly, 20 Apr 1922, p.98.

[16] Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian, 5 Jan 1923, p.6.

[17] Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian, 12 Jan 1923, p.4.

[18] Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian, 19 Jan 1923, p.4.

[19] https://www.manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/architects/william-thornley.

[20] https://stockportplaza.co.uk/heritage-restoration/history/.

[21] Plans and Notice of Intention to Build, Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1922/2/780.

[22] Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1922/2/780.

[23] Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1922/2/780.

[24] Trafford Local Studies, PLA/2/ALT/1932/2/4/8.

[25] Altrincham, Hale, Bowdon and Timperley County Express, 12 October 1961, p.7.

[26] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976

[27] Douglas Rendell (compiler), Cinemas of Trafford – A Souvenir of 100 Years of Cinema, Altrincham, Douglas Rendell, 1998.

[28] Quoted in Hale Civic Society, Hale and Ashley - The Past 100 Years, Altrincham, Hale Civic Society, 1987.

[29] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976.

[30] Douglas Rendell (compiler), Cinemas of Trafford – A Souvenir of 100 Years of Cinema, Altrincham, Douglas Rendell, 1998.

[31] Private Papers of George Miller-Johnstone, Imperial War Museum. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030032216 [Accessed 2 Apr 2025].

[32] Kinematograph Weekly, 5 Jul 1928, p.31.

[33] David Miller, The History of Hale, Cheshire, Revisited, Altrincham, Self Published, 2018.

[34] Picturegoer, 1 Mar 1923, p.4.

[35] Kinematograph, 31 May 1923, p.72.

[36] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976.

[37] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976.

[38] Hale Civic Society, Hale and Ashley - The Past 100 Years, Altrincham, Hale Civic Society, 1987, p.208.

[39] David Miller, The History of Hale, Cheshire, Revisited, Altrincham, Self Published, 2018.

[40] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490744/reviews/?ref_=tt_ov_ururv [Accessed 3 Apr 2025].

[41] Potter’s Picture Palace Episode 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjsSpxTDk34 [Accessed 3 Apr 2024].

[42] Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976.

[43] Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser, 7 May 1937, p.11.

[44] Cheshire Observer, 8 Feb 1962, p.28.

[45] Altrincham Bowdon and Hale Guardian, 19 Jan 1923. p.1.

[46] Altrincham Guardian, 22 Apr 1976, p.1.

[47] Altrincham Guardian, 22 Jul 1976, p.1; Hale Civic Society, Hale and around – Its Past in Pictures, Altrincham, John Sherratt & Son Ltd, 1976, and Hale Civic Society, Hale and Ashley - The Past 100 Years, Altrincham, Hale Civic Society, 1987.

[48] Altrincham Guardian, 22 Dec 1977, p.1.

[49] Altrincham Guardian, 12 Jan 1978, p.1 and 19, Jan 1978, p.1.

[50] Altrincham Guardian, 9 Mar 1978, p.1.

[51] Altrincham Guardian, 9 Mar 1978, p.1.

[52] Altrincham Guardian, 4 May 1978, p.1.

[53] Douglass Rendell, The 100^th Anniversary of Cinema in Trafford, Hale Civic Society, Trafford Local Studies, 980004.

[54] https://www.facebook.com/AltrinchamToday/posts/who-remembers-hale-cinema-on-willowtree-roadopened-in-1923-initially-with-some-o/1330433743798348/  [Accessed 29 Mar 2025].