Ultimate Picture Palace

{{Infobox venue

|name = Ultimate Picture Palace

|nickname =

|former names = Oxford Picture Palace (1911–17)

Penultimate Picture Palace (1976–94)

Section 6 Cinema (1994)

|logo_image =

|logo_caption =

|image = Oxford UltimatePicturePalace night.jpg

|image_alt = Porticoed façade with two Roman Doric columns on square plinths. Two pairs of double doors flank a small ticket office.

|image_size =

|caption = Front of the Ultimate Picture Palace at night

|pushpin_map =

|pushpin_map_caption =

|pushpin_label_position =

|address = Jeune Street, Oxford OX4 1BN

|location = East Oxford, off Cowley Road

|coordinates = {{coord|51.748704|-1.239333|type:landmark_region:GB-OXF|display=inline,title}}

|type = independent cinema

|genre = independent films,
World cinema,
repertory cinema

|broke_ground = 1910

|built = 1910–11

|opened = {{start date and age|1911|02|24|df=y}}

|renovated = 1976, 1994–96, 2014

|expanded =

|closed = 1917–76, 1994–96

|owner =

|operator =

|cost =

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|project_manager =

|structural engineer =

|services engineer =

|general_contractor =

|main_contractors =

|seating_type =

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{{Infobox designation list

|embed = yes

|designation1 = Grade II listed building

|designation1_offname = Penultimate Picture Palace

|designation1_type =

|designation1_criteria = Rare surviving example of a simple early cinema

|designation1_date = 23 September 1994

|designation1_partof = Grouped with the Elm Tree pub next door

|designation1_number = 1278732

}}

|website = {{URL|http://uppcinema.com/}}

|publictransit = Oxford Bus Co 5, U5

Stagecoach buses 1, 10, 12

Thames Travel bus 11

}}

The Ultimate Picture Palace is an independent cinema in Oxford, England. It is Oxford's only surviving independent cinema, showing a mixture of independent, mainstream, foreign language, and classic films.

The cinema has been a Grade II listed building since 1994.{{NHLE |num=1278732 |desc=Penultimate Picture Palace |grade=II |accessdate=9 March 2018}}

History

Frank Stuart opened Oxford's first cinema, the Electric Theatre, in Castle Street, in 1910. He was the licensee of the Elm Tree pub on the corner of Cowley Road and Jeune Street. Also in 1910 work started to build Stuart's second cinema on land in Jeune Street behind the Elm Tree. It opened on 24 February 1911 as the Oxford Picture Palace.{{cite book |editor-last=Hibbert |editor-first=Christopher |editor-link=Christopher Hibbert |year=1988 |title=The Encyclopaedia of Oxford |place=London |publisher=Macmillan |chapter=Cinemas |isbn=0-333-39917-X |pages=88–89}}

In 1917 the manager was conscripted to serve in the First World War. The cinema was closed and stood unused for many years before being turned into a furniture warehouse.{{cite web |url= http://www.uppcinema.com/about/history |title=History of the UPP |publisher=Ultimate Picture Palace |accessdate=22 November 2017}}

In 1976 Bill Heine and Pablo Butcher reopened the cinema as the Penultimate Picture Palace.{{cite book |last=Heine |first=Bill |authorlink=Bill Heine |year=2011 |title=The Hunting of the Shark |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford Folio |isbn=978-0-9567405-2-6 |pages=22–23 |url=http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk/The-Hunting-of-The-Shark |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208162108/http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk/The-Hunting-of-The-Shark |archivedate=8 December 2015 |df=dmy-all }} They added a sculpture of Al Jolson's hands by John Buckley to the façade. The first film to be shown was Winstanley. Under the new management the cinema gained a reputation for showing an eclectic and provocative range of films that set it apart from the mainstream cinemas of the time.

In 1994 Heine closed the Penultimate Picture Palace.{{cite web |url= http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/reviews/venue/900/Ultimate_Picture_Palace |title=Ultimate Picture Palace |publisher=Daily Info |accessdate=10 December 2012 |place=Oxford}} For a month that summer it was squatted by the Oxford Freedom Network, which reopened it as Studio 6 Cinema. Then brothers Saied and Zaid Marham bought it and spent £40,000 restoring the neoclassical façade.{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/15/cine-files-ultimate-picture-house-oxford |last=Wollenberg |first=Anne |title=Cine-files: Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford |newspaper=The Guardian |publisher=Guardian Media Group |date=15 November 2011 |accessdate=10 December 2012}} They reopened it as the Ultimate Picture Palace in June 1996.

File:Oxford - Ultimate Palace Cinema - 0106.jpg

In the 2000s the cinema got into debt. In July 2009 Saied Marham sold it to Philippa Farrow and Jane Derricott, who installed a small refreshment bar in the northwest corner of the auditorium.

In 2011 Farrow and Derricott sold the cinema to Becky Hallsmith. In 2014, as a result of a successful Kickstarter Campaign, Hallsmith had the auditorium refurbished with new seats.

Becky Hallsmith died in September 2018. In April 2022 the 'Own the UPP' campaign offered 312,000 community shares to Oxford residents,{{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-61193727 |title=Ultimate Picture Palace: Oxford's oldest cinema could be bought by community |publisher=BBC News |date=22 April 2022 |accessdate=24 July 2022}} in July 2022 the campaign had sold sufficient shares to run the cinema as a community asset. {{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-61745801 |title=The Ultimate Picture Palace: Squatters, sharks and Stanley Kubrick |publisher=BBC News |date=17 June 2022 |accessdate=24 July 2022}}

References

External links

{{official website|http://uppcinema.com/}}
{{cite web |url= http://www.picturepalace.org.uk/ |title=The Ultimate Survivor |publisher=Philip Hind}} – documentary film about the Ultimate Picture Palace
{{cite web |url= https://www.cowleyroad.org/wiki/index.php?title=UPP |title=UPP |publisher=CowleyRoad.org}} – wiki entry on a local website

Category:1911 establishments in England

Category:1976 establishments in England

Category:1996 establishments in England

Category:Cinemas in Oxfordshire

Category:Culture in Oxford

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Oxford

Category:Theatres completed in 1911

Category:1917 disestablishments in England

Category:Re-established companies

Category:Entertainment companies established in 1911

Category:Entertainment companies disestablished in 1917

Category:Entertainment companies disestablished in 1994