Art Deco cinema

I love this beautiful Art Deco independent cinema, Tyneside cinema! It was built as a news theatre in 1937 and was designed by Dixon Scott, the great-uncle of our local film director (director of films such as Alien, Gladiator & Prometheus) Sir Ridley Scott.
At that time, people had to listen to the radio to get the news, so the opening of the News Theatre gave local people the opportunity to see the news at a charge of 6d (six penny). It would have been quite exciting to see moving pictures at that time and to be able to view sport and global news for the first time.
In the late 1950s, people started to get TVs at home and so sadly the news cinema closed down in 1968. It was re-opened as a film theatre but with competition (Newcastle had FORTY cinemas at that time!) and it again closed in 1973.

Most mainstream cinemas show films made in America but Tyneside cinema was popular for showing British and foreign language films. A large petition saw the cinema re-open 3 years later. As britain a last surviving news cinema the cinema was granted gradeII listed building status.
In the late 90s the cinema again started to decline again and many feared it would close. However, in 2006 restoration began due to charitable funds and donations.

Now the cinema is back to its former glory. With its attractive and popular Art Deco cafe. It also has a bar which holds film clubs and groups such as foreign language film groups. It continues to show mainstream films as well as older, independent and foreign language films. It has tours of the building at 11.15am on Tues, Wed, Fri and Saturdays. I see that there are plans to extend the cinema further so it's future looks bright!

We went to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was a great movie! Also enjoyable as the cinema lets you take drinks from the bar into the screen to drink during the movie.