Joan Humphreys, aged 78, of Kendal, remembers cinemas in the town in the 50s

In the 1950s Kendal had three cinemas, two of which were in Sandes Avenue and the third (St George’s) in Stramongate

St George’s had been a theatre and was still used as such from time to time, particularly for the productions by the Kendal Amateur Operatic Society.

Not many people had televisions at that time and so the cinemas were well used.

It was not uncommon when a popular film was being shown for the queues on a Saturday night at the Palladium to stretch round the corner of Sandes Avenue into Stricklandgate, and the queue for St George’s often stretched as far as Stramongate bridge.

There were two showings of each picture most nights ( but not on Sundays), the first house being at 6pm and the second at 8pm.

The seats on the ground floor (stalls) cost 1/9d; at the back of the balcony the charge was 2/3d and the dearest seats were at the front of the balcony and they cost 2/9d.

The evening’s entertainment began with a short film (perhaps a cartoon or a wildlife picture) and a newsreel. The main picture usually lasted about 90 minutes.

New films didn’t come to Kendal until a few weeks after release and there were large bill posters outside keeping you up to date with what was showing that week of the week after.

When the Queen was crowned in 1953, a film was made of the Coronation in full colour (lots of films were still being made in black and white at that time) and rather than wait for it to come to Kendal, a friend and I travelled to Lancaster to see it.