|
Picture
Halls...."kin a go tae the pictures
Mammy?"
| The ARCADIA Picture
Hall, 484 London Road,
Bridgeton
|
.
Photo of the old Arcadia picture hall in 484 London
Road
|
This cinema opened on hogmanay 1930 by
cinema giants ABC, it was sold to Harry Winocour in 1939 who sold it to
George Green Ltd in Nov.1954 before it closed as a picture hall on 2 Apr
1962.
It became a bingo hall before finally being demolished in 1971.
|
London Road at Arcadia Street junction where the Arcadia Picture Hall
used to be.
|
|
London
Road photograph taken from Abercromby Street looking over to the Arcadia
Street junction, right of the flats. Templeton Business Centre is the building in the background.
..
|
Feb.2003, extract from
guestbook, Eileen O'Neil ( email : tba
)
"I lived in Arcadia street during
1946 - 1958, is there not anyone out there who remembers the Arcadia
picture hoose on a Saturday morning, playing at Glasgow Green which was at
the bottom of the street and it was the only place to go during the summer
holidays after you went for your free dinner at the school then you had a
picnic to take with you. And of course my old school ' St. Mary's'. What
about all of us who lived up the tenements that got pulled down and we
either were shipped out to Easterhouse and Castlemilk.... "
|
May 2003, extract from
guestbook, Bob Hay, Augusta, Australia ( email : tba
)
Born: Silvergrove Street, Age:
61-70. "Webmaister
the photo of the old Arcadia Street picture hall brought back many fond
memories of going to the Saturday matinees with my great pal Arthur Park (Narker)
to see the likes of Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers and our introduction to
horror with Boris Karloff and the creepy wee Peter Lorre (remember him
with the dreepy eyelids) We used to take in a carton of wulks to throw
down onto people from the balcony when we got bored, or fire peashooters
sideways at people's heids so that they thought it was people behind them
that were throwing things. Ah yes, the rerr fun we had when we had no
sense of responsibility to our fellow man. (My aunty worked in Anderson's
Mill in Brook Street I think and used to get me these smashing hollow
wooden things for yarn that made great peashooters. This was before the
advanced technology of the infamous tottie gun or rubber dober became
available). But I digress. After the matinee finished there was a mad rush
down the steps into the blinding daylight and along to a bakers shop for
tuppence worth of broken cakes before he shut for the weekend. This rush
is not to be confused with the one from the open air swimming baths down
on the Glasgow Green in the summer. That was purely to try and get warm
again! I think the last picture I remember from the Arcadia was 'Floodtide',where
Gordon Jackson made a live appearance and signed autographs and if my
memory serves me right his gorgeous co star was Rona Anderson. Now THAT'S
a long time ago. Oh by the way, your website is terrific."
|
Nov. 2015, extract from Email, GlescaPal Rena Brown, Glasgow
The Arcadia was where I went a
lot as I stayed beside it, it was called 'the ranch' as it showed a lot of
cowboy pictures. It was in London Rd, and it was 6d to get in. What I enjoyed
about the pictures in those days was you had the wee picture, then trailers for
what would be next week then the big picture, so you spent hours there. Sometimes in the the Arcadia on Saturday morning they had a contest where kids got
up and sang, danced etc.
At the
interval the ice cream girl came with a wee tray and straps round her back to
sell to you, she stood at the bottom near stage, usherettes all had wee hats
on head, men I'm sure had wine colour uniform and hat on head. |
.
|
