From travelling picture shows to Beech Hill’s silver screen
For more than half a century, going to the pictures was one of Otley’s favourite pastimes. Long before television arrived, generations of local people enjoyed everything from silent films accompanied by a pianist to Hollywood blockbusters shown in purpose-built cinemas.
The story began not in a cinema, but on The Licks during Otley’s annual feast day.
Before the cinema
Before permanent cinemas existed, travelling showmen brought moving pictures to Otley in large tented theatres. Alongside fairground rides and sideshows, audiences marvelled at “living pictures” projected onto a screen.
Local resident Tom Mudd later remembered the excitement of these early shows. The images flickered, sometimes went out of focus and occasionally stopped altogether, but they introduced many local people to motion pictures for the first time.
The King’s Hall arrives
Otley’s first permanent cinema opened on Station Road in 1911 in what became known as the King’s Hall.
Rather than building a new cinema, an existing building was converted to seat around 600 people. Great attention was paid to safety, with fireproof projection facilities, multiple emergency exits and its own electricity generator. Admission cost between 3d and 1 shilling.
The King’s Hall showed everything from First World War dramas to early comedies. As in many silent cinemas, films were accompanied by live piano music, with local pianist Miss Brogan selecting pieces to match every scene.
After changing hands several times, the building eventually became a billiard hall, roller-skating rink, biscuit factory and finally the site now occupied by Sainsbury’s delivery yard.
The Burras Lane Picture House
A year later, another cinema opened on Burras Lane, created by converting an iron workshop near the Recreation Hall.
Although advertised as a modern picture house, regulars remembered the building for its poor heating and the deafening sound of rain hammering on its metal roof. It seated around 500 people and featured one of the latest Kalee projectors. Despite the basic conditions, it became a popular entertainment venue during the 1910s and early 1920s.
Kirkgate enters the picture
Otley’s next cinema opened on Kirkgate in 1921.
The new Picture House launched with Mary Pickford’s Through the Back Door and soon became one of Wharfedale’s best-known cinemas. After refurbishment in 1936, it offered improved seating and modern facilities, while photographer Laurence Pickles operated his studio upstairs for many years.
The cinema’s final film was Gregory Peck’s Yellow Sky in May 1960. Within a year, the auditorium had been demolished to make way for a supermarket.
Beech Hill – Otley’s finest cinema
The cinema most Otley residents still remember is Beech Hill Cinema, opened in October 1930.
Designed by Otley architect Oswald Holmes, it was the town’s grandest cinema, with seating for around 800 people and an impressive Art Deco façade clad in grey faience. Its opening feature was The Flame of Love starring Anna May Wong.
Beech Hill hosted everything from wartime newsreels and Laurel and Hardy to Tarzan adventures, Vera Lynn films and special promotions featuring military tanks and even a giant gorilla outside the cinema.
In 1951, it won first prize as the cleanest cinema in Britain for venues with fewer than 1,000 seats.
The final curtain
Like cinemas across Britain, Beech Hill struggled as television became the nation’s favourite form of entertainment.
In 1968, the building became a bingo hall before eventually being demolished, bringing an end to Otley’s era of purpose-built cinemas.
Today the buildings have largely disappeared, but their stories remain. From travelling fairground picture shows on The Licks to Beech Hill’s packed Saturday matinees, Otley’s cinemas entertained thousands of local people and reflected the changing face of popular entertainment throughout the twentieth century.
For the full article and further information, visit:
https://otleylocalhistorybulletin.wordpress.com/2025/10/16/cinemascape-part-one/
https://otleylocalhistorybulletin.wordpress.com/2025/10/20/cinemascape-part-two/
