• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Villa Cross Cinema

Wow, that brings back a few memories! The last film I remember seeing there was "Behemoth The Sea Monster" with Andre Morrell, X-rated but laughably un-scary, even though I was only about 13 (and obviously big enough to get into X films). That would be about 1958. We also used the weird little sweet shop to the right of the cinema in the photo, for our 5 Park Drive to see us through the films. Then a stroll back home along Heathfield Road and Trinity Road, and total denial when we got in that we'd been anywhere near a picture-house.

Big Gee
 
There you go Big Gee, an original 1958 poster for the film. Its in the American title of the film; the British poster might have differed but rare to track down and compare though.

View attachment 69878
 
hi richie..what a brill pic of the picture house..its certainly new to me...the little shop you see to the right of it is still there as its a listed building..oh happy days of going to this pic house every sat morning...thanks richie...

lyn
 
Last edited:
Here is a present day pic of the shop and the site where the Villa Cross stood, how very sad. I paid it many a visit in the late 50's when I lived in Queens Road Aston if nothing appealed to me at the 'Vic' or Astoria
 
Last edited:

Great photo, thanks for posting it.



What can I see in the foreground, is it some kind of watertank from the war?
 
thanks for that pic eric...very sad that my childhood picture house has gone..morturn i wondered what that water was there for..ive got pics somewhere of the villa cross when it was under demolision..will see if i can find them...

lyn
 
Such a shame when you see it as a ton of rubble. Many memories of my youth were had in that Picture House.
I used to love that little Sweet Shop next door it used to remind me of something from a Dickens novel.
 
oh i agree topsy...i used to buy pop by the glass from that little shop...if memory serves me right the film true grit starring john wayne was the last film i saw there.i can also remember going down to the front at the interval and dancing to puppet on a string..happy days..maybe you and i were going there at the same time...



lyn
 
Probably Lyn. I Can remember my friend and i going to see Goldfinger there but we had to ask someone to take us in with them as we were under age.
We sat right at the top of the Cinema so we could have a fag (tut tut) but we hadn,t got a match. The toilets up there still had a little gas lamp where we managed to get a light from.
 
I haven't been down Villa Cross for years, but I think the land the Villa Cross was built on, and land adjacent to it, became a supermarket.

I think that little shop has featured on another thread in this forum.

Richie,

I meant to add that Andre Morrell starred in two of the BBC "Quatermass" series, and they were about as scary as something that isn't all that scary...

Big Gee
 
looking at the first photo I wonder in my minds eye how many times my dear mom must have gone up those steps, she was always telling me the story of coming home one night in the war with my nan and aunt when they were machine gunned by a german plane.
paul
 
big gee you are quite right the ground that the villa cross actually stood on is now a car park and the supermarket was next to it...what a waste of space that was..

paul...what a story about the german plane..thank goodness your mom.nan and aunt lived to tell the tale..it must have been very scary for them all..

topsy..great story about the ciggies and the gas lamp..

lyn
 
I also have happy memories of the Villa Cross Cinema, I particularly remember going to see "The Jolson Story" which I think was showing in the late 40's. To relive those memories I recently bought a DVD of the film which also included "Jolson Sings Again". They don't make 'em like that anymore !!
Regards Reg
 
HI COOKIE
Hope you are well; do you mean you never went to the three penny crush at the vic ;
to see flash gordon on the morning or afternnon mattnee when i think about the crush all the kids of aston must have been there
i was there day and night or i would go to the astoria ;my last film i seen there in my life at the astoria was roy rogers
and when i came out i got knocked down way back in 1953
went with my uncle joe and my brothers to the villa never liked there , and regards to the revamp i thought at the time they never done much to it inside replaced a couple of seats and done a nice frontage only ; never rated the villa picture house
have a good day cookie best wishes alan astonian
 
Alan never went as a child to Villa Cross, went between the years 1944 to1948 (aged 14 to 18 )then away in RAF for 8 years till 1956 then I may have occassionally gone again in my late twenties until 1962 when we moved to Erdington, my childhood was spent in Sheldon and Shirley, although I was born in Aston 1930 but left when I was just 4 years old. I preferred the Astoria or better still 'up town' on the 3X tram to Gaumont or Odeon if I could afford it Eric
 
Last edited:
roverman said:
I also have happy memories of the Villa Cross Cinema, I particularly remember going to see "The Jolson Story" which I think was showing in the late 40's. To relive those memories I recently bought a DVD of the film which also included "Jolson Sings Again". They don't make 'em like that anymore !!
Regards Reg
Click to expand...


hi roverman here is a pic of the cinema and you can just see thats its showing the jolson story...the date on the pic says 1962 so im not sure if that date is correct if you saw it in the forties...im trying to put a date on the car and van..mind you they could have shown it more than once...

lyn
 
Hello Astoness, the picture is no doubt 1962 judging by the car on the right which is definitely 1960's, perhaps the film was re-run in 1962. the reason I remember is that I had a girlfriend at the time who lived in George Street and the "Villa" was our local cinema, this was before I went in the RAF in January 1949.( I won't give her name so as to protect the innocent !!)
Checking the internet to confirm, the film was originally released in 1946
Regards Reg
 
hi reg...i lived in villa st and if memory serves me right thats where len pritchard had his butchers shop.. it was on the left going towards villa road.lovely man...

lyn
 
I always thought that the Villa X had a beautiful entrance with the large circular windows. I notice the frames on the demolition photographs #9 - Such a shame that it is no longer with us? The last film I saw there was the 'Witch Finder General' back in the 60's. Mabz
 
Mayfield said:
I always thought that the Villa X had a beautiful entrance with the large circular windows. I notice the frames on the demolition photographs #9 - Such a shame that it is no longer with us? The last film I saw there was the 'Witch Finder General' back in the 60's. Mabz
Click to expand...


hi ya mabz....totally agree with you it was a fine looking buiding and noticed the frames too...i bet lots of us on here have crossed paths going in and out of that cinema..i also remember going to see jungle book there...


happy days..

lyn
 
Astoness said:
hi roverman here is a pic of the cinema and you can just see thats its showing the jolson story...the date on the pic says 1962 so im not sure if that date is correct if you saw it in the forties...im trying to put a date on the car and van..mind you they could have shown it more than once...

lyn
Click to expand...


All we need is someone to go up to the Local Studies section on what days they are still open and check out the newspapers for 1962 on microfilm.
Is that facility still going with all the upheavals?
 
My friend has sent me this picture of the foyer. It looks very elegant.
 

Attachments

  • VillaCrossCinemaFoyer.jpg
    VillaCrossCinemaFoyer.jpg
    238.5 KB · Views: 14
Last edited by a moderator:
what a wonderful pic topsy....brings back so many happy memories...:)

thank you for posting it and to your friend for sending it to you...

lyn
 
TOPSYTURVEY said:
View attachment 70982 My friend has sent me this picture of the foyer. It looks very elegant.
Click to expand...

That's a lovely photo Topsy! You get a good idea of the magnificent size of the round window above the entrance. It's nice to see a photo of how cinema foyers used to be; inviting and promising a few hours escapism from the real world. It's a pity today we're bombarded with all those products you can buy in the foyer before the film. I'd rather be cocooned in this sort of splendor any day than queue for a mega tub of popcorn and a diet coke! Notice the simplicity of the booking office too - well I assume it's the booking office to the right. Enjoyed this photo very much, thanks for posting. Viv.
 
ive just been studying that pic topsy and drifting back in time lol...we didnt sit up in the balcony but always sat dowstairs for easy access to the front of the stage...during the interval music of the day would be played and those that wanted would go down and have a dance...pretty sure we could use both doors either side of the stairs...

thanks again for posting it..

lyn
 
Loved the pic Topsyturvey.

Lyn I wonder if you used to go to the Villa Cross when I did. The picture certainly revived memories for me that I had forgotten. I used to queue outside regularly with my friend Jean Thomas to go in to see films there in the mid-1950s!

Judy
 
hi judy..hope you are keeping well....it would have been the mid 60s when i started using the villa cross...such a lovely building...just an empty space now so what a waste..ive mentioned this before that we used to buy tizer pop by the glass from the little shop next to the cinema and i can still see the lady coming round flashing the torch as she went on her way selling those little tubs of ice cream with the wooden spoons.......happy days...

lyn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top