Woolton Picture House was handed a lifeline earlier this year but there’s still work to be done to secure its future
Kevin Fearon has called on local residents to rally round in the bid to save Woolton Picture House(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Since opening its doors for the first time in December 1927, Woolton Picture House had been the place for people to laugh, cry and share memories that would be handed down generations. But while it has suffered five years of closure, its hopes of survival have been given a lifeline.
Kevin Fearon, 64 and Gillian Miller, 63, the husband and wife team behind the rescue of the Royal Court Theatre are hoping to repeat the same success and turn around the fortunes of another of the city’s lost treasures. In 2008, Gillian formed the Royal Court Trust which put the wheels in motion for the grade II-listed Queen Square theatre to be saved.
She headed up a £10m scheme which saw the fortunes of the venue turned around.
Looking back to the couple’s efforts to resurrect the city centre venue, Kevin said: “So we thought this building’s at risk, and we had an idea to put theatre back on in there. So, we took it on, and it’s the same here, we see a building at risk.
“Having done those 20 years at the (Royal Court) theatre, and Gill’s raised £10 million to refurbish it over 20 years, we’ve understood what it takes to get a building from nothing up to fully functioning and full with an audience.”
Kevin and his wife Gillian have been integral in turning around the fortunes of The Royal Court Theatre(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Opening for the first time on December 26, 1927, the cinema’s original seating plan saw it hold up to 800 people on wooden benches. As the years progressed it continued to play a key role in local life, never more so than throughout World War II when it survived bombing raids and even opened its doors to broadcast newsreels to the local community. In the late 1950s its survival was put on the line once again when a fire broke out and nearly destroyed parts of the auditorium.
Kevin said it would have been a “crime” if he and his wife hadn’t pooled their experience into trying to save Woolton Picture House: He told the ECHO: “We thought if we didn’t, with our background, take this project on, then who could we expect to? So it felt like an obligation to take the building on. And I’ve said this to somebody else, it would have been a crime if we didn’t, because we have the ability, we think, to do it.”
Woolton Picture House has been through many incarnations in its 98 year history(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Earlier this year it was revealed that contracts had been exchanged with Woolton Cinema’s current owners for the building to be purchased for a sum of £450,000. A Community Interest Company (CIC) has been formed to help raise funds to buy the site as well as an additional £250,000 to complete a refurbishment, taking the overall total needed to £700,000.
As Kevin gives me a guided tour of the nearly 100-year-old cinema, the scale of the job in hand is clear to see. He first points out that they are soon set to tackle the damage to the far wall, saying: “This is our big problem at the moment. It’s the damp on this wall and also in the corner here, both of those are from plant growth. There’s a gutter missing there. So plant growth, but also soil from next door has fallen against our wall. So it’s just damp all the time.”
Kevin explained how plant growth on the exterior of the building is a significant challenge ahead of the reopening(Image: Liverpool Echo)
However, their It Takes a Village to Open a Cinema campaign is already seeing members of the local community come and help out in the bid to bring the cinema back to life.
Detailing their efforts, Kevin added: “I’ve got a gardening party of about 20 people this weekend, all volunteering. I’ve got six people making teas and coffees. So, we’re all going to make a day of it and get rid of that soil so that wall starts to dry out and then we can fix it.”
Meanwhile, as we venture outside and round to the back of the cinema, we make our way up the winding staircase before reaching the projectionist’s room that looks like it has remained more or less intact since the cinema’s opening day back in December 1927.
Like many other parts of the venue that are no longer fit for purpose, Kevin says the current projector is no longer fit for purpose due to the corrosion sustained over the last few years that the cinema has lay vacant.
But, in another show of community spirit, Kevin said that a local company has jumped in to save the day, for a short while at least: “There’s a company, Adlib Audio, they’re lending us a projector for Christmas.”
The first major marker of just how far Kevin and the team have come in their bid to save the cinema will come this Christmas, as they are set to host 12 days of screenings.
Plans are in place for the cinema to open its doors for 12 days in December(Image: Liverpool Echo)
As Kevin revealed that Christmas classics including the likes of The Holiday, Miracle on 34th Street and It’s A Wonderful Life are set to feature across the 12 days, he added: “It’s important the opening for us at Christmas, because we need to show people what we’re raising money for and remind people how good the building is, how exiting it can be, and hopefully that’ll help the fundraising.”
With the cinema having been through many incarnations in the past, Kevin hopes that the community spirit can help see the cinema thrive for years to come: “Having been closed for five years, I think the public have realised what it is that they have potentially lost.
“And the chance to reopen it, I think, will develop a stronger groundswell of people wanting to come and support the building, not to just come and see films, but to support an important building within the community, because if they don’t come, then it could be lost again.”