The Curzon Cinema in the 1930s (picture neither taken or owned by me)

The hidden top half of the auditorium

I've added these pictures of the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon to the library and it's such an interesting place that I wrote an article about it in 2010 for Somerset Life magazine. So here it is:

THE CURZON CINEMA, CLEVEDON

Imagine you found a 1950s coffee bar intact, with all its furniture and fittings just as they were, its décor largely untouched. What a find eh? Ah, well that’s because it’s 2010. If you’d found the same place in 1970 you’d be appalled that the owner had done nothing to update the place. No, to retain its originality, a place has to survive through a period where it’s regarded as tired and outdated, unloved and unvisited. Only decades later is its survival celebrated.

The Curzon Cinema in Clevedon is the oldest cinema in Europe. Not the earliest one ever built but the one that’s been a working cinema for the longest and it’s survived intact so it is indeed time to celebrate it.

The cinema started its life as The Picture House in 1912 with a newsreel about the Titanic disaster. Electricity was added, and the cinema was rebuilt in its present form and opened in 1921.

Sound arrived in 1930, and in January 1941, Clevedon’s only air raid of World War II occurred when a bomb exploded just outside the foyer, destroying the entrance doors and the semi-circular window above. The shrapnel scars are still visible today.

In 1946 the cinema became the Maxime and in 1956 it became The Curzon.

Like most cinemas, during the 70s and 80s it declined and by 1995 it was in danger of closing but a local campaign saved it, turned it into a charity and now happily it survives (and makes a profit) as the Curzon Community Cinema with two full time staff and ten volunteers, of which Mary Duncan-Burden is one – “I work here to give something back to the community. I like meeting all the different people and I get to know the regulars”

And because it’s entirely independent, it can show not only the latest releases (“Mama Mia” being its most popular ever) but foreign films and even silent films. The eclectic mix attracts an audience from far and wide.

I first discovered this cinema as part of photographing Clevedon for an article in Somerset Life. I went in and said “Hello. I hear this cinema is the oldest something-or-other…”

“Oldest in the world.” said Colin Love, the projectionist, unoffended “Well, we used to say that but we’ve since discovered there’s an older one in Beijing”

My next question – “Have you got any of the original décor?”- was enough to prompt an instant guided tour which I feel, justifiably, I have to describe in filmic terms. ..

In “Beneath Planet of the Apes” (the sequel to “Planet of the Apes” where Charlton Heston discovers he’s on Earth but far in the future), he and his companion find a tunnel which he realises is a ancient subway station and this, in turn, leads him to huge caverns where the buildings of New York’s downtown area now lie as ruins under millions of tons of rock.

My fascination at that scene came back to me as Colin showed me the still intact circle and ceiling of the cinema, above the modern suspended ceiling that’s all that present day patrons can see above them.

Lit only by a couple of work lights, the huge embossed span of the ceiling stretches away into the darkness but showing the full glory of the whole auditorium if it could be restored.

This upstairs has been hidden in the darkness for twenty years since the installation of the suspended ceiling made it impossible to even reach the 1920s proscenium arch.

“What is all this decoration?” I ask. “It looks like leather.”

“Tin”, he replies, “plates of tin. It was an instant form of decoration at the time.”

On my next visit, after I’ve decided that this cinema demands an article to be written about it, I’m shown around by Gareth Negus, the Director, who tells me that all the tin plates remain so at least that’s not an obstacle to a full restoration.

Once more I look upon this “lost world” and note the original seats, still in place but gathering dust and the parts for a Christie pipe organ – also the subject of a hoped-for restoration.

The cinema has a working organ, a Compton Mellotone, that is played regularly by Bernie Brown, its owner, to an appreciative audience, and a further historical aspect is the cinema’s collection of projection equipment, the Curzon Collection, a part of the Projected Picture Trust, currently curated by Maurice Thornton and stored in the (leaky) gallery on the top floor. A few choice items are exhibited in the foyer but this collection also desperately needs a proper space for it to be seen and for the projectors to be demonstrated.

Some work is imminent – the roof will be repaired so it no longer leaks, which will allow the top floor gallery to be renovated; the stairs will be restored to their 1920s glory and will thus rise through the full height of the building; the foyer will be expanded allowing the cinema’s history to be shown, both on panels and with exhibits, and the semicircular window above the foyer will be restored.

As they’ve saved it and work in it for free, local people obviously like this cinema and it’s a very conceivable jump, because of that “power of prayer” if you like, and maybe a hefty chunk of Lottery money too, to its full restoration with the whole auditorium opened up and both the ceiling and circle restored.

Then, it would be magnificent, and you’d certainly see it featured in many more magazines than just this one but in the meantime, of course, I urge you to go and see what is visible for yourself and let the cost of your ticket bring it a bit closer to its full, well-deserved restoration.

POSTSCRIPT (Now - January 2012) - hopefully some of the hoped-for work has come to pass and the complete restoration of the full auditorium is a bit closer. To see all the pics, look here.