A town with so many assets is notably lacking in one: the arts. Shrewsbury may not have had a theatre when I first visited – or was the Music Hall still used for performances then? – and it had no central cinema. The one it did have closed in 1998, and I have since dined in it – and I pause to say how lovely the staff at Pizza Express were. They’ve kept a cinematic theme in their posters and signage, and you can enjoy a large round ceiling feature. Outside is suitably Shrewsbury-ish – in the traditional black and white. It was built as The Empire in 1922, and ended its film showing life (after other changes) as the ABC.
Former cinema on Mardol
In Shoplatch is a turn of the last century building that has been known as the Theatre Royal, or County Theatre, but has also served as a picturehouse until the end of the last war. It is now apartments. The former Granada on Castle Gate has been a bingo hall since the 1970s and retains a spectacular 1930s interior. There are, or were, at least two other cinemas in Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury’s current theatre was born to celebrate the birth of the son it promotes most – Darwin, who was brought up nearby the site in Frankwell. Frankwell doesn’t sit well – it is often flooded by the adjacent Severn after which the theatre is named, and I understand that it may be in danger of that despite its special walls. They sacrificed one of the town’s few historic chapels and made it part of a bar. The rest is quite nondescript, with two auditoria and some quite good views from the foyers. It seems mostly a receiving house – it does not make it own productions.
It is sister to where I’d like to take you – their logos both appear on tickets.
The multiplex is out of town to the south east; I had no inclination to find the 8 screen Cineworld which opened the year in which the Mardol cinema closed.
I had plenty of inclination to find the place I’m about to tell you about.
I’d firstly like to say that there is one other interesting venue for live arts and for film in Shrewsbury. It was hard to discover – more so than the amateur dramatics that sometimes take place on the English Bridge. The Hive is in the heart of the loop of that river, next to old St Chad’s, in a Georgian area. I didn’t go in, so I can only tell you how it seems, since I was put off by having to ring a bell for entry and by the signs asking me to wear masks – long after such ‘advice’ had been dropped. The Hive, with its orange sign and hard to get hold of elsewhere brochure, runs a kind of bi weekly film society night, mostly with foreign language films.
So, to the rather quirky and exciting cinema which is approaching its 18th birthday. In the Square is an Elizabethan beige stone building on legs, known as Old Market Hall. It is now the council run cinema with a cafe. Annoyingly, it goes by its initials, OMH (yes I sometimes put BTS but that’s just written shorthand for my church community,).
The ground area covered by the first floor hall seems quite empty; a few tables from upstairs’ cafe, but by night I felt less comfortable hovering. There’s a lift and stairs, recalling Bristol’s Watershed, taking you to the attractions above. There’s a few leaflets, but when I last visited, none of their own, and they didn’t even display what was on when in the building. So busy was I seeking this – or the prices, £10 I think at present – that I missed that they are a card only venue, which is also off-putting.
I believe in cash for it is immediate, anonymous, and I know that the pandemic has been an excuse to switch us to digital, where we can be tracked and money removed remotely.
They have only one film at at time for a week (with the addition of a parent/baby morning screening and perhaps a filmed live event as a one off) shown thrice a day – a matinee, early evening and mid evening showing. On Sunday, this is different: there seems to be no Sunday evening showings, just one at noon and mid afternoon. The whole building seems to shut by tea, and you can’t get any here after three.
Despite a recent brochure saying that this bar is open til late, the only constructive sign on the building I saw said that the bar shuts at 9pm. It’s also limited, one presumes, by the space in this historic building. It was imaginative to get a cinema and bar in there. We were told that sandwiches are brought in and no variations are permitted – so if you don’t want coleslaw you are stuck – eat it or don’t have. I didn’t have. There is no warm food here.
Despite the importance of this building, it’s more simple inside than I expected: no plastered ceiling or features, just an open room with a fairly crude timbered pitched roof; there are more trusses in the cinema end. It’s divided into two fairly equally, with a tiny loo between and hardly any foyer space. Yet, even with only 9 rows and 81 seats, there’s a couple of seats for couples.
As I dislike elsewhere, the bar and the box office are the same.
OMH bills itself as art house but it is only just thus: yes I’ve seen foreign language films listed but it often focusses on the so called quality end obvious of new film releases.
The programming was no better than a much smaller town, who also has a single screen and venue, but being a sliver of the size of Shrewsbury, it was impressive there but not here.
I’ll be taking you to Ludlow next.
Cinema with Elspeth 