Haddon Hall Cinema

There were once five cinemas in Burley:

The West End

known as 'the Cosy', built in 1911 on the north side of the railway viaduct, but only last a year

The Atlas

built in 1912 at 249/251 Kirkstall Road

The Lyceum

known as 'the Loppy Lyo', built in 1913 on Cardigan Road

The Haddon Hall

built 1914 on Bankfield Terrace

The Burley Picture House

further down Burley Road, beyond the viaduct

The Atlas - renamed 'The Embassy' in 1935 like its sister cinema in Meanwood - was the plushest, with satin curtains at the front, pictures of the stars along the side, and finely-wrought gas-lamps. but the friendliest were the Haddon Hall and the Burley Picture House - even though the latter was known by some as the 'Burley Bug Hutch' because of the friendliness of some of the creatures that lived there!

What happened to them? Only the Haddon Hall still stands, and is now empty and derelict. It had a brief life as a bingo hall after closing as a cinema in 1960. The Lyceum too, became a bingo hall in 1968; now the site, at the corner of Thornville Road, is occupied by a petrol station. The Embassy on Kirkstall Road became a Woolworths store in 1956, but has since been demolished. So too has the Burley Picture House.

A local resident remembers:

In the early 30s the 'talkies' were coming to most cinemas. The Haddon Hall had two large loudspeakers on either side of the screen: a kind of stereo that wasn't even thought of in those days! A large L.P. record was played while the film was shown, usually a sing-a-long feature with a bouncing dot going over each word. This system was known as a 'panatrope'

The Haddon Hall Cinema in 2002