Westerhope, Stamfordham Road, Picture Palace (Orion)

HER Number:
12845

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Westerhope, Stamfordham Road, Picture Palace (Orion)

Place:
Westerhope

Map Sheet:
NZ16NE

Class:
Recreational

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Cinema

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Opened in August 1912. Designed by Lemington architect H.F. Burrows. The owner was Samuel R. Piper, former deputy at North Walbottle Colliery. The cinema was basic - it had 434 stalls and a tiny balcony seating 16. Piper died in 1927 and the cinema was taken over by his son Robert, then Mary Ann Piper. The balcony was enlarged and a small shop and rewind room added. Percy Longhorn, a cinema sound engineer, took over in 1932 and installed an Electrocord sound system. From 1938 Leslie Longhorn and his wife ran the cinema. It was redecorated and renamed the Orion. It closed as a cinema in January 1970 and was converted into a bingo club.

Easting:
1956

Northing:
6737

Grid Reference:
NZ19566737

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Frank Manders, 1991, Cinemas of Newcastle, page 121; Frank Manders, 2005, Cinemas of Newcastle, page 131, 136, 137, 160; J.T. Allison and A.D. Walton, 1989, Bygone Westerhope, 19