Projectionist emotional as museum rebuilds cinema

A man was "transported back to his childhood" after the cinema he worked as a projectionist at was reconstructed in a museum.

Bill Mather, 83, was among the first to see the now-completed replica of Ryhope's Grand Cinema at Beamish Museum near Stanley, County Durham.

The former Sunderland landmark, which was built in 1912, was demolished in 2020.

"I really felt very nostalgic and I don't mind saying it, I did have a lump in my throat and it took me all my time to keep right where I should be," Mr Mather told the BBC.

The rebuilt cinema features some fixtures from the original, including stained glass windows which survived the building's conversion into a bingo hall, and later a car garage.

There are plans to show full feature-length films, Pathe footage and news reels from the 1950s.

Mr Mather, from Ryhope but now living in Bearpark near Durham, said the building was special to him as it helped launch his career in cinema.

"I had a wonderful time at the Grand before I went into the big cinemas around the town," he said.

"It was like being in another world, you had the whirring of the projector going, the arc lamp and the carbon, and that's how it was done."

He started as a trainee projectionist at 10 years old, five years under the legal age of 15, where he learned how to operate the auditorium.

Mr Mather helped museum bosses recreate the building, including matching the original interior paint and layout.

"It's been an absolute pleasure," he said.

"I feel like I've been lifted up from 2024, a bit like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, but without the whirlwind, and taken back."

Beamish Museum chief executive Rhiannon Hiles said it had "very carefully" recorded each detail from the original building before it was demolished.

Due to the condition of some of the ornate plasterwork, some designs had to be recreated, from relief casts, detailed drawings and photographs.

"Everyone will come into this space with a different feeling and it might be they were community members, or they remember the 1950s, but walking back into the space will bring back a whole load of memories for them," Ms Hiles said.

"Perhaps we haven't quite got the smells, which came from food, the sweets and the smoking, which of course you don't do now, right just yet, but perhaps they'll come."

The cinema has been reconstructed in the museum's 1950s town along with radio, electrical and vinyl shops, and a toy store based on Middlesbrough's Romer Parrish.

The buildings will open to the public at 11:00 BST on 6 July.

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