Historic photos of Woolton Picture House released following “overwhelming” support over Christmas

Woolton Picture House reopened over the Christmas period to help raise funds for its future.

Woolton’s Picture House has closed the curtain on its 12 Days of Christmas campaign with an overwhelming show of community support – raising a staggering £60,000 and welcoming thousands of visitors back through its doors for the first time in years.

The festive programme, which saw the historic cinema reopen for a limited run of fundraising screenings, welcomed 7,300 ticket-holders across the 12 days. Along the way, audiences enjoyed 1,500 buckets of popcorn, 2,000 interval ice creams – and even witnessed a Christmas Eve proposal – as the Picture House once again echoed with laughter, applause and shared memories.

The success of the campaign brings the cinema’s overall fundraising total to just under £220,000, marking a major milestone in the ongoing effort to secure the future of Liverpool’s oldest surviving cinema. Built in 1927, the venue is the city’s only remaining single-screen cinema and is currently the focus of a community-led campaign to raise £700,000 to purchase the building and restore it as a community-owned cultural venue.

The festive reopening featured screenings of much-loved Christmas classics including It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually and White Christmas, offering supporters a chance not only to enjoy the films but to play a direct role in safeguarding the cinema’s future.

Meanwhile the iconic cinema has released incredible images that take you back to its glory days, dating as far back as 1927.

Led by Woolton Cinema Community Interest Company (CIC), the project aims to return the cinema to community ownership and reopen it as a multi-use cultural space for film, live performance, music and local events – ensuring it remains a living part of Woolton life for generations to come.

Fundraising will continue into the new year, and all details of the project can be found here www.wooltoncinema.com. 

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