By LYNDSAY KOHBERG
MORE people have been sharing their memories of former cinemas after reading our four-part series.
Clive Pownceby from Crosby commented on the picture we printed of Queens Cinema staff.
He said: “I notice the staff picture from Waterloo Queens shows promotional dress and lobby cards relating to San Demetrio London – one of my favourite non-comedic Ealing films which would date this photo to 1943, the year of the film’s release.
“I used to see this propaganda film a lot on TV repeats as a child and the tale is based on a true story.
“The pictures were so important to my mum and dad in the 30s – it was their night out, their glitzy escapism and hark back to a simpler time.”

Les Thomas, from Waterloo, said he has many happy memories of all the cinemas we featured.
He added that his favourite picture houses in the late 1940s and early 1950s were Queen’s and The Winter Gardens.
Les said: “Queen’s had an emergency exit in Cross Street, still there today, where my friends and I used to bunk in (enter without paying after one of us had paid to go in) and opened the door for the rest of us to get in free.
“Sometimes we were caught and banned from the premises, but most of us got in again by paying.
“Saturday matinees always featured a cowboy film such as Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, Johnny Mack Brown or The Lone Ranger.
“Occasionally the film broke down, always at an exciting moment of the film, we would bang our seats and shout ‘put a shilling in the gas will yer’.
“That was the moment when some of the audience dropped glass stink bombs to show their disapproval.
“These bombs were usually purchased from The Wizards Den in Moorfields on the Saturday morning.”

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