Fight to save ruins of ‘ Blitz’ cinema
Theatre bombed during Second World War set to find new life as tribute to city targeted in Nazi air raids
IT IS a powerful reminder of wartime Britain, recalling the devastating impact of air raids on one Yorkshire city.
When the bomb struck one night in 1941, the National Picture Theatre, on Hull’s Beverley Road, was packed with an audience enjoying the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator.
Remarkably, 150 people in the foyer escaped unharmed although the cinema was left a ruin.
For the past 20 years campaigners have been fighting to save the remains of the theatre, hidden behind hoardings on Beverley Road, and reopen it to visitors as a tribute to the resilience of ordinary citizens.
Only a handful of ruined Second World War buildings remain in England, most of them churches or military structures.
The Hull cinema is the only blitzed civilian building left standing, and the least altered.
Now the final push is on, with architects working on the final drawings for plans to do work including reinstating the front entrance doors and a new platform on the auditorium.
A second stage bid for funding is also due to go in within weeks to the National Heritage Lottery Fund for £ 289,000, with a result expected in the spring.
The total cost of the project will be around £ 450,000, with some £ 300,000 spent on permanent repairs and the rest on interpretation and activities.
Meanwhile a call has also gone out for volunteers to get on board.
Hilary Byers, from the National Civilian WWII Memorial Trust, said: “The kind of thing they might want to volunteer for is helping at events, helping people come in and find their way around and talking to people.
“They might be interested in keeping the site tidy and making sure weeds don’t grow again. They may have their own ideas or events they would like to put on at the site.
“We’ve already had people quite interested in putting on re- enactments. We can look at how we fit in with other people’s ideas.”
Mrs Byers said they expect to be doing a few activities on site with volunteers from March.
As the year progresses they are planning to hold re- enactments, and in May will be holding a 1940s’ VE Day picnic in Pearson Park, the 75th anniversary event having been cancelled this year due to the pandemic.
The city’s devastation was kept hidden during the war, with news bulletins referring to it as a North East town. Mrs Byers said: “Because of that Hull tended to get under- rated ( in terms of damage) and possibly still does. People talk about the start of the Blitz being in September 1940, which it was in London. But in Hull they’d already had bombing raids in June and July and they went on longer than anywhere else. The last was in 1945.”
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact hilary@ amskaya. karoo. co. uk or call 01482 445747.
They may have their own ideas or events they would like to put on. Hilary Byers, from the National Civilian WWII Memorial Trust, on the role of volunteers.