Welcome to the official site

‘Let’s go to the Pictures’

A history of Doncaster Cinemas.

 

 

START THE JOURNEY

“There is nothing, that can match the compulsive magic of that big screen in a darkened auditorium. We may have become more sophisticated in the way moving pictures are made today but the essential cinema-going experience has not changed”

 

Cinema has the same capacity to seduce, influence and to overwhelm as it did 120 years ago.

You could race with Ben-Hur’s chariot, join Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road, enjoy a Brief Encounter with Celia and Trevor, fly a Spitfire and Reach for the Sky. ride the range with John Wayne, Carry On Up the Khyber with Kenneth Williams and the gang, fight Star Wars, run from T Rex in Jurassic Park and attend Four Weddings and a Funeral!

An estimate in 1936 on audience attendance at Doncaster cinemas in a normal week was round about 50,000. Within the town boundaries there were seven sites accommodating over 10,000 patrons, used exclusively for showing films.

The Patron and Ambassador for Doncaster Cinema Heritage.

Ron Curry MBE a cinema veteran for over 40 years, an historian and author of ‘Let’s go to the Pictures’ he was awarded the MBE in June 1997 for services to film history. Dedicated to promoting Doncaster’s 120 Year Cinema Heritage, the lead campaigner in saving the Newbury A Trent 1934 Gaumont Palace Frieze.
Patron pictured with Mr Brian Blessed OBE who visited and supports ‘Keeping the Frieze in the Public Eye.’ loudly proclaiming “This is our cinema heritage”

The ‘Trent’ historical cinema frieze (created in 1934) is now framed and displayed in Doncaster’s Civic and Cultural Quarter.

Doncaster Free Press wrote:

Ron Curry MBE who tracked the artwork down to a farmer’s field after becoming concerned that it been lost, is pleased to see it given a prominent home. Ron, who set up the Doncaster cinema heritage group, called Let’s go to the Pictures, and wrote a book using the same title, said he was proud that his group was named on the plaque about the frieze, due to its efforts to save the work and bring it back. Actor Brian Blessed is a patron of the group.

Aims

The main aims of this web site are to:
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Bring Cinema history to as wide an audience as possible.

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Provide a way of gathering and sharing the technical and architectural detail about the sites and the film memories from both official and private sources.
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To generate and promote ‘100 Years of Cinema Come to Life’ with events and projects relating to Doncaster Cinema, in order to foster a critical understanding of the historical and social implications of the medium

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The Cinema Heritage of Doncaster. ‘Let’s go to the Pictures’ is an independent not for profit group, involved in all cinema heritage, the Lead Campaigner in the saving of the 1934 art sculpture of the Gaumont Palace Trent Frieze, is not affiliated or associated with any Doncaster Council Lottery funded Organisation, Doncaster Heritage Association or Doncaster Civic Trust.

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