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90 New City Road, Cowcaddens
Opened: November 8th 1922
Closed: 1964
Designed by: J Jeffrey Waddell
Designed by: Charles J McNair
Number of screens: 1
Number of seats:
895 (1922)
1020 (1927)
954 (1954)
A conversion of a classically fronted United Presbyterian church squeezed in between two tenement blocks, The Cambridge opened in 1922.
Located at the junction of New City Road and Abercorn Street and backing onto a bakery, The Cambridge boasted an attractive facade but a very basic interior.
Three main doors led to a central pay box with the screen at the opposite end of the stalls, together with the orchestra pit, required to provide live music for silent films.
Another indication of The Cambridge's early links with the early days of the moving image is the charming description of the projection room on the plans as the "lantern box", with the "winding room" next door.
Audiences at The Cambridge in February 1946 could have enjoyed The Wizard of Oz, by November 1952, Esther Williams, famous for her swimming routines appeared in a second-rate MGM musical Skirts Ahoy!
Programmes in July 1961 included Bob Monkhouse in A Weekend with Lulu and a double bill of The Fall of the House of Usher and The Trouble With Eve.
In 1927 The Cambridge was renovated by renowned cinema architect Charles J. McNair and some extra seats were added in the process.
The Cambridge closed in 1964 and was demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area to make way for a motorway.
