3. West’s Picture Palace

West’s Picture Palace opened on West Street on 4th November of 1909. It was the fourth cinema to open that year and with higher prices than Bio-Pictureland, The Vaudeville and The Reading Picture Palace it had to offer people a lot more for their money. West’s was advertised as having “a first class orchestra” to soundtrack their silent films.

What really made the cinema special, however, was the showmanship of the owner Mr T.j. West. He was known for holding competitions to bring in an audience but also for novelty film presentations- like smashing glass in the auditorium to accompany windows smashing on screen.

On the project we thought this was a great idea, so we had a go at doing it ourselves:

Another of West’s claims to fame relates to Wilfred Owen. In 1911 he attended University College Reading but before then, on 29th December 1910 he visited West’s cinema. Owen was famously critical of cinema but he seemed impressed by what he saw, describing them as “West’s wonderful Pictures” in a letter to his mother.

Cinemas at this time would show a real variety of films, West’s was advertised as showing “Travel, sport, drama, comedy, and farce” all on the same bill! It seems that Owen had mixed feelings about the cinema programme, because in a letter to his brother he said: “That afternoon we also saw ‘the pictures’/ The French boys always charm me, but the mixtures of Blood and Thunder Stories sometimes shock me”.

Cinema attendance fell during World War I and West’s Picture Palace closed in November 1914