Three Rivers Museum Trust chairman Fabian Hiscock looks back at Rickmansworth's cinema history.

I thought it might be time to look at some of the lighter sides of life. Even in the 19th century it wasn’t all work – there was play. But let’s start with what readers will remember – let’s go to the cinema.

It was the French Lumiѐre brothers in 1895 who first invented a way to show moving pictures to a paying audience, and did so in London in February 1896. Thomas Edison had already used a machine to allow one person to see pictures in 1891 and in very popular ‘parlours’ (all over the world) from 1894. The technology, and filmmaking, spread and developed amazingly quickly, initially in Europe and Russia: colour appeared in 1909, by which time there was a fully-fledged industry. The first purpose-built London cinema opened in Wandsworth in 1909.

It didn’t take long for the craze to spread, to Rickmansworth as well as to Watford. In 1912 the Old Town Hall had been converted into a cinema known as The Electric Picture Playhouse, and later the Electric Palace. This showed films interspersed with variety acts, and the familiar photo taken at Batchworth is dated to about 1913 by the advertisement for the film ‘Love and War in Mexico’, released in that year.

Watford Observer: Kings Stores, with a billboard for the Electric Picture Playhouse showing the film Love and War in Mexico released in 1913. Image: Three Rivers MuseumKings Stores, with a billboard for the Electric Picture Playhouse showing the film Love and War in Mexico released in 1913. Image: Three Rivers Museum

The Picture House, next to the Metropolitan railway bridge in Rickmansworth High Street, was part of the interests of Harry Walker the boat builder. It opened on part of the recently-closed brewery site in 1927 with the silent film, Nell Gwyn, starring Dorothy Gish. Silent films were accompanied by an orchestra, perhaps only a pianist, until a sound system was introduced in 1930. Patrons could enjoy a tea dance in the ballroom in the afternoon and then go on to see a film in the evening. Some readers will still recall the building shaking when a Metropolitan Line train passed over the bridge nearby.

Watford Observer: High Street Rickmansworth, with the Electric Picture Playhouse on the left, about 1920. Image: Three Rivers MuseumHigh Street Rickmansworth, with the Electric Picture Playhouse on the left, about 1920. Image: Three Rivers Museum

The Picture House was pretty sophisticated, with nearly 700 seats and a ballroom and tea lounge. The Electric Palace couldn’t compete with it, and it closed in 1927, very shortly after the Picture House opened.

There had been plans for a further cinema in Uxbridge Road, Mill End, but these came to nothing.

Watford Observer: The Odeon Theatre - a handbill from the opening night. Image: Three Rivers MuseumThe Odeon Theatre - a handbill from the opening night. Image: Three Rivers Museum

The third cinema, which opened in January 1936, was the Odeon at 93/95 High Street, the corner with Church Street, a much more luxurious Art Deco style building. On the opening night the orchestra of Miss Dewey and her Savoy Ladies appeared, along with the film On the Wings of Song, starring Grace Moore.

Watford Observer: Behind the scenes – one of the two projectors from the Picture House. Image: Three Rivers MuseumBehind the scenes – one of the two projectors from the Picture House. Image: Three Rivers Museum

Readers will remember Saturday morning children’s programmes and matinees as well as box-office hits - and being shown to your seat by an usherette with a torch. Apparently, the Gaumont British newsreel was shown at the Picture House, which often caused a frantic dash between cinemas to catch the news before the Odeon main feature. But the Odeon was never as successful as was hoped, and it closed in 1957. There had been thoughts of turning it into a swimming pool, but instead it was eventually demolished and offices built on the site – the corner of Church Street and the High Street was known as ‘Odeon Corner’ for many years afterwards.

Watford Observer: How we were greeted: a sign from the Odeon Cinema. Image: Three Rivers MuseumHow we were greeted: a sign from the Odeon Cinema. Image: Three Rivers Museum

This just left the Picture House in Rickmansworth, which eventually shut its doors in 1963 with the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford cult classic, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Rickmansworth was then without a cinema until Watersmeet opened in 1975, showing films as well as providing live entertainment, just as it does today.

The development of the modern cinema complex is another story altogether, but it’s all part of the changing way we now take our entertainment. The old films might look quaint today (do we still refer to ‘the flicks’?), but they were a very important part of our entertainment from over 100 years ago.