The Meadows is a well-defined area of Nottingham
south of the city centre. It is bounded
on the south by the River Trent, on the east and north by the Nottingham canal,
and by Queens Drive in the west. In the 1970s, housing in the Meadows was
deemed unsuitable by the council and a large part of the area was demolished to
make way for a new development of modern council housing.
In 1975, the viaduct
carrying the Great Central railway and Arkwright Street station was demolished
as the new development started to take shape.
The map below(an
amended version from (8)) shows the Meadows in 1973 before the start of the
major re-development – and in the time that the cinemas flourished. The location of the 4 cinemas that had been
operating in the Meadows are identified, together with the Plaza over the river
in West Bridgford – but which was in the City until 1951 (9 p13). [The 6th
cinema, the Tudor, is about a kilometre to the south of Trent bridge]. West Bridgford is a contiguous urban area
with the Meadows located on the south bank of the Trent. It is now in the borough of Rushcliffe
whereas the Meadows is in the City.
The table below summarises the characteristics of
the 6 cinemas:
Cinema name
|
Location
|
Year opened as cinema
|
Year closed as cinema
|
Seats
|
Present state of the building
|
Queens
|
Arkwright
St
|
1911
|
1955
|
400
|
Demolished
|
Globe
|
North
side of Trent Bridge
|
1914
|
1962
|
850-684
|
Demolished
1969
|
Imperial
Picture House
|
Wilford
Road
|
1916
|
1957
|
1000+
|
Demolished
|
Plaza
|
South
side of Trent Bridge
|
1918
|
1942
|
833
|
Demolished
|
Grove
|
Mayfield
Grove/KirkWhite St
|
1938
|
1962
|
1000
- 800
|
Demolished
|
Tudor
|
Tudor
SQ WB
|
1931
|
1959
|
1391
|
Demolished
|
The
Queens
When this cinema originally opened it was known as
the Midlands Electric Picture Palace.
Probably due to the death of the owner it closed in June 1935 and then
reopened as the Queens in January 1936.
It closed in 1955 (1). Photo from
the front cover of (8). It is taken from
the junction of Arkwright Street and Queens Road looking south to Trent
bridge. The Queens hotel (now a
fireplace showroom) is on the right. The
entrance to the Queens cinema can just be detected on the left – a few metres
closer to the photographer than the parked car (10).
This cinema was not held in the highest esteem – a
flea pit is one description (2).
The
Globe
The
Globe was situated opposite Turneys leather factory at Trent Bridge, and the sidedoor,
as shown in the picture opened out towards the bridge .The cinema was located a
little further towards the bridge than the present car wash (2). The cinema was
built and owned by Mr and Mrs Brian Ludlow.
Brian was a well-known bookmaker in West Bridgford. Its standard offering was an A and a B
feature and the News (2). The picture below is from (9, p19).
The Globe closed on
Friday 30th June 1961 as a cinema to reopen as a bingo hall on Monday 10th July
1961. This venture closed on Saturday 4th October 1961, and the Globe reopened
as a cinema on Monday 23rd October 1961. It finally ceased as a cinema on
Saturday 30th June 1962 (7).
From ref 3. Lime trees were planted more than 100 years
ago to commemorate a visit by Queen Victoria to Nottingham and the naming of
Queen’s Walk in her honour. Keen to retain the wood from the trees, local
residents have worked with the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) extension
project to ensure that it can be used to create something for the community to
enjoy.
Two local artists have been
painstakingly carving images into the tree trunks to create twelve 2.3 metre
high ‘story poles’ representing the history and nature of The Meadows’
community.
The first to be installed to mark the
launch of the project is the Old Meadows story pole hand carved by local tree
sculptor Dan Sly. The pole includes a film reel wrapped around the pole to
celebrate The Meadows’ past and cinematic history. Dan used old photos to carve a map of the Old Meadows, and the Globe
Cinema frontage
The Imperial Picture House
After WWI a programme of building council houses
began in The Meadows on vacant land south of Holgate Road. In 1916 the Imperial
Cinema was erected on Wilford Road (11) , about 1/3 of the way down from the
City to the Wilford Toll bridge on the left-hand side. (2) The picture is from (9, p18).
The Plaza
The
Plaza was opened in 1918 as the Pavilion Picture House & Garden. As can be
seen below, this was quite a grand building (10).
The Pavillion closed
on the 27th August 1927 and reopened as the Palace on Thursday 15th September
1927. It closed on Saturday 26th December 1931. It was restyled by Alfred Thrave, with a new entrance
(picture(10) and reopened on Monday 16th May 1932 as the Plaza (1
p71). It closed on 14th March
1942 (7).