The morning after the 28days meet, I’d been hoping to get up early and slip down Moonwalker, but the bad weather put pay to that plan. Needing a derp within running distance of my luxury Traveltavern, this place seemed to fit the bill. The run over and the explore helped to take the edge off my hangover before the drive home and, although it’s trashed, there was enough here to keep me occupied for a while.
History from: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/34732
‘Located in the Hockley district in the north of Birmingham. Originally opened on 15th November 1911 as the Hockley Picture House, it had 506 seats. It was re-built and enlarged to the plans of architect L.L. Dussault, re-opening as the New Palladium Cinema on 8th November 1922. The opening film was Isobel Elsom in "The Game of Life". The 3-storey building had a tiled mansard roof on top of its facade. Inside the auditorium, there was an elegant decorative scheme and seating was locating in stalls and circle levels. The projection box was located beneath the circle, above the rear stalls seating area.
From 22nd October 1936, it was taken over by the Associated British Cinemas(ABC) chain, and was re-named Palladium Cinema. It continued to operate successfully as an inner city neighbourhood cinema for many years.
The Palladium Cinema was closed on 13th February 1965 with Gerald Hatray in "The Spy" and Francoise Arnoul in "Daggers Drawn"(A Couteaux Tires). It became a bingo club, which operated until closing in the late-1970’s. The building then lay empty and unused for many years, and still stands in a deteriorating condition in 2011.’
The explore...
The inside is pretty trashed, and is clearly being used for storage. There’s all kinds of crap, including mattresses, tables, duffle coats and various white goods in various guises. If you can see past these, however, there’s plenty of original features left.
I failed to get any externals, due to making a quick get away (as I was getting ready to leave an alarm set off nearby leading to a load of people gathering outside) so here’s a 1950s external from the link above. Imagine this, in colour but derpier and you’ve got the 2019 version...
Various bits of crap obscuring the view of the stage. Oh, and it took me a while to notice that I’d somehow bogged up my fisheye in the drain the day before, hence the smudge in the middle of some of the pics...
Sadly the foyer was crammed full and I wasn’t in any state to start moving fridge freezers...
The wallpaper on stage was nice though...
As was this random roll of Fred Basset wallpaper that I brushed the dust off...
Stairs, peeling...
Some balcony views...
Elsewhere, nice bogs...
Bottles...
Window...
Up top...
Spotted by derpcat on a nearby roof...
Mind the step...
One final look...
And off for breakfast... sadly my hash browns were soggier than this place...
Last edited:
