Venue ‘played a part
HISTORIAN MERVYN EDWARDS TAKES A LOOK BACK AT A MUCH-LOVED CINEMA AND THEATRE
AFONDLY-REMEMBERED Potteries entertainment venue stood on an awkward corner site and for some of its working life could hardly be described as palatial.
However, it seeped into the consciousness of local people, not despite its imperfections, but because of them.
The Victoria Pictures in Hartshill first threw open its doors in 1913, according to cinema historian Barry Blaize in his engaging book, The Lost Empire (1990).
The inter-war period saw the Victoria in lockstep with many other Stoke-on-trent venues willing to embrace new developments in the cinema world.
For instance, The Sentinel enthused in December, 1930 that ‘to see and hear a popular operetta faultlessly filmed is very good. To hear it clearly reproduced is still better. That is the verdict of patrons of the Victoria Cinema, Hartshill, where The Desert Song is being presented for the first three days.’
The film version of an operetta that had been produced for the stage was regarded as something of a milestone in cinema history, and so this was considered a major coup
for the Hartshill venue. The building that most readers would remember was a radical reconstruction of 1934, complete with double swing-doors, a conspicuous front canopy, a main entrance hall and a modern but elegant pay-box.
A carpeted lounge offered a hint
of luxury with much of the interior being painted in ‘sunset pink, shading to amber.’
We tend to consider the multiplex entertainment centre as a much later idea, but only because terminology evolved more slowly than concepts.
However, the early Potteries venues were far from being one-trick ponies and were nothing if not versatile auditoria.
In the 1930s, not everyone went to the Victoria Cinema to see films. The evangelist, H K Munson drew crowds, lecturing on such as The Time of Christ’s Coming as well as Beyond the Tomb – Shall We See Each Other There?
Whilst audiences pondered these weighty matters, there was accompanying music from a female soprano in addition to orchestral selections.
Come early and bring a friend, entreated the advertisements.
However, films were the breadand-butter of the Victoria Cinema, which played its part in the spread of high culture in Stoke-on-trent.
The North Staffordshire Film Society was formed in 1946 with the plan to show films not generally distributed in the city on account of ‘commercial, language or other difficulties.’
This group tended to assemble a programme for Sunday evenings over the winter months and quickly drew a membership of 400.
The early films included esoteric offerings such as American documentaries, French classics and an Italian film of 1947 entitled Four Steps in the Clouds.
Revivals of the best silent and sound productions were shown as well as amateur films, providing much intellectual fodder for the discerning movie-goer, who was also treated to illustrated talks given by speakers actively connected with the film industry.
Not that you’d have wanted to be a patron during August, 1948, when the severe and widespread flooding in the Potteries spread to this little site on the corner of Hartshill Road and Victoria Street.
The roadway flooded outside with the consequence that water rushed in through the bottom doors with patrons inside the cinema having to be moved from the ‘ninepennies’ further up the raked seating area and away from the deluge.
The success of the North Staffordshire Film Society is seen in the fact that it was still holding meetings at the Victoria Cinema until well into the 1950s.
However, like so many of the older picture houses, the Victoria faced challenging times in the fifties including rising costs and increased competition for custom. Notable changes were on their way. Addressing Burslem History Club in 2019, Romy Cheeseman explained: “By the early 60s the cinema had been turned into a variety club that had become notorious, and which had to be closed down for rioting and after-hours drinking. Hartshill was such a terrible place!”
It became a venue for a 333-seater theatre in the round, its director being Stephen Joseph, who had for some time been looking for a base for his Studio Theatre Company.
It opened on October 9, 1962 with the play, The Birds and the Wellwishers – a comedy by William Norfolk. Audiences were often modest in size, with people perhaps being put off by the primitive boiler heating. Peter Cheeseman, the Vic’s first resident director, recalled in later years that some play nights were so chilly that you could see the breath of the actors. Some patrons, he remembered, came equipped with blankets and Thermos flasks.
The Victoria blossomed into a genuine community theatre, staging plays penned by the likes of Alan Ayckbourn and John Wain.
It would also stage adaptations of Arnold Bennett novels including Clayhanger (1967), Anna of the Five Towns (1969 and 1979), The Old Wives’ Tale (1971) and The Card (1973).
Romy also told Burslem History Club about the genesis of the relationship between Peter Cheeseman and artist Arthur Berry – who was to prove that his talents extended beyond wielding a paintbrush.
The story goes that Arthur and a colleague from Burslem School of Art – where Berry taught – staged an art exhibition at the Vic and that Peter was much taken with the humanity in Arthur’s work.
It is known that Berry was not comfortable in a lot of places, but he enjoyed watching plays at the Vic and after watching a production of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, believed that he could write something of the same ilk, with the Potteries as his setting.
He tentatively set to work – and a couple of years later, happened to meet Peter Cheeseman in the Swan pub in Burslem, proudly informing him that he had written a play.
Cheeseman read it and thought it just the ticket, and The Spanish Dancer from Pinnox Street was subsequently staged.
It told the story of an amateur artist who was desperately looking for a platform for his work and was thus somewhat autobiographical.
Berry – much to Cheeseman’s delight – would attend rehearsals and instruct the actors as to how to physically portray the oddballs he had created.
This 1976 production was followed by others including Quiet
Please (1981) and The Sweet Bird of Card Street (1984).
The Victoria Theatre’s drama documentaries were hugely popular, often incorporating music. They were rooted in factual history, with Cheeseman once declaring, “If there was no primary source material available on a particular topic, no scene can be made from it.”
Serendipity prompted the title of one famous production. The theatre company were rehearsing G B Shaw’s Candida and decided to take time out at a nearby boozer on the corner of Hartshill Road and Vicarage Road.
Recognising the visitors, the landlord welcomed them rather cheekily with the words, “And the title of your next play is The Jolly Potters.” The publican’s joke was prophetic as the theatre ultimately staged a play – with that very title – about the onerous conditions in the pottery industry that engendered the Chartist Riots of 1842.
The Fight For Shelton Bar is also remembered, telling the story of the British Steel Company’s so-called rationalisation programme that foreshadowed the gradual dismantling and closure of the local steelworks at Etruria and the devastating loss of jobs.
The Knotty dramatised the story of local railways, underpinned by the memories of former railway workers. The Victoria Theatre, which could seat 389 patrons, moved to nearby Etruria Road, with the present purpose-built theatrein-the-round opening in 1986.
Its capacity is a little over 600. It has staged everything from Shakespeare to Uncle Eric and like its predecessor has truly earned a place in the hearts of theatre-goers.
Mervyn will present a Mervyn’s Mondays talk on Monday, 28th, entitled Hartshill in Living Memory, at the upstairs function room of the Victoria Lounge Bar, Adventure Place, Hanley. Admission is £3, pay on the day.