What's in a name?

[Guyana]

In my youth, our town had two cinemas, the Odeon, and the imaginatively named Picture House.

[Gone]

The nearest one to me as a nipper was The Atherley, known more commonly as the flea pit for some reason.
The first cinema to open in the area, 5 months after the fatal voyage of Titanic.
A very popular cinema in its day but in later years got a bad reputation and younger people were not safe in there.
Eventually it became a bingo hall, like most others.

[radstockjeff]

An unusual named cinema at Poundstock, near Bude is The Rebel, an independently run affair so presumably that's where the name derives.

[radstockjeff]

There were,of course, those better known perhaps by their local name rather than the "official" name , for example The Picture Hall / Picture House in Ocean Road , South Shields,  was also know as The Cosy! now long since gone.
And also in South Shields The Westoe Picture House was probably better known as The Chi.

[guest141721]

The nearest one to me as a nipper was The Atherley, known more commonly as the flea pit for some reason.

We had a flea pit too the Capitol, opened in 1934 and closed in 1955. Funny how name after name of now defunct cinemas keep cropping up

[Gone]

The nearest one to me as a nipper was The Atherley, known more commonly as the flea pit for some reason.

We had a flea pit too the Capitol, opened in 1934 and closed in 1955. Funny how name after name of now defunct cinemas keep cropping up

It's also funny how these cinema names can evoke memories of a whole childhood into teenage years too. 🎦

[Rena]

My schoolpal and I were weekly visitors to our local cinema, The Priory.

In the early 1960s the American film star Douglas Fairbanks junior converted one of Hull's many cinemas into a bowling alley "Faitlanes", which  soon attracted companies to assemble teams of players.  I was in my company's 10-pin bowling team and once got a perfect score and beat the English champion.... yeah.    I once got the wooden spoon too - ouch