Final Curtain Fear For Birkenhead Library Cinema Club
Filed Under Curtain Rods | Posted on December 26, 2008
A CINEMA club based in Wirral’s historic Birkenhead Town Hall (now Wirral Museum) faces an uncertain future after the local authority announced proposed cuts in public buildings.
The Birkenhead Library Cinema Club is in its 37th season and has become known for showing films people would be unlikely to see in a multiplex.
Using projection equipment rescued from a former cinema, and based in the Assembly Rooms upstairs in the historic town hall on Hamilton Square, the club has gathered a significant following.
But the review currently being consulted on by Wirral Council now poses the most significant threat.
“The town hall is a grade I-listed building, but if it’s taken over by a private organisation, we could end up being charged for the use of the rooms, and that could well be prohibitive.
Mike Taylor, the club’s projectionist, who showed The Sound of Music twice a day for two years, has a passion for old cinema, and even recorded its decline in the second half of last century.
His cuttings and photographs from this period fill eight scrapbooks, five of which he donated to the record office at Liverpool Central Library.
For 15 years he has worked the projector for film buffs at the club which meets on Thursdays.
Mr Taylor said they are due to return after a Christmas break, but fear they may not even see through the current season.
Tags: assembly rooms, central library, cinema club, film buffs, final curtain, hamilton square, liverpool central, mike taylor, mr taylor, multiplex, old cinema, private organisation, projection equipment, projectionist, public buildings, scrapbooks, showing films, sound of music, uncertain future, wirralRelated posts
Leave a Reply