Woolton Picture House close to its first reopening target after huge community support

Woolton Picture House is close to its first reopening fundraising target after a huge combined effort from supporters and volunteers.

From coins thrown into popcorn buckets to seat sponsorships, large individual donations and filmgoers buying tickets for special screenings, the total has now topped £400,000.

That means there’s less than £50,000 left to raise by a May 8 deadline.

Couple Kevin Fearon and Gill Miller, who also revived the city’s Royal Court theatre, launched a rescue mission for the historic cinema last summer.

Determined not to let it be lost forever, they agreed a sale with the previous owner, set up a Community Interest Company (CIC), and launched a campaign to raise an initial £450,000 to buy the building for the community. 

After a phenomenal response, they’re now on the final push.

Kevin said:

“It feels like we’re on target for May 8 and it’s been a great year for the building and everyone who’s been involved in it, in terms of support both financially and also in the time the volunteers have given. 

“We had one very generous donation, £100,000 from local business owner Harry Crampton, but even without that we’ve had £305,000 from a real mix of supporters.

“And it’s been a lot of people, not just a handful of big money donors, which is important because it shows there’s that amount of support.

“There’s a real desire to come and be part of watching a film at the cinema which is great.”

One of the first tangible signs of just how much people wanted to see the Picture House restored and back open again came when they announced a fundraising line-up of Christmas films.

“We told everyone to bring coats because we didn’t have any heating when we put the tickets on sale, but the screenings sold out anyway,” says Kevin.

“In the end we did have heating because RB Mechanical put in a £10,000 boiler for us for nothing, so we’ve had heating from day one and that’s made such a difference. 

“It’s not just been like a war effort, with everyone digging in to watch shows in the bitter cold, they’ve actually enjoyed it because it’s been warm and cosy and the welcome from the volunteers has been cosy as well.”

Kevin says although it was an ambitious campaign to take on, he always had confidence it could be done.

“When Gill and I looked at the building and thought, we should do something here, I think because we felt it was an obvious thing to do that everyone else would agree. Because of our experience with the theatre, it was just that we were the people to take that leap of faith.

“We honestly felt everyone else was thinking the same as us, they just needed someone to be the catalyst, and we were right in that everyone did want it to happen.”

Woolton Picture House will have a run of screenings up to May 4 to raise what will hopefully be the last funds to reach the initial £450,000 target. Then the building will belong to Woolton Cinema CIC and to the community, and they can start looking at raising more for renovations.

“We’ve set a figure of £250,000 which is what we might need to make it safe and more habitable. We’ve got an architect on our board who’s working on plans, drawing up a list of works like a fire alarm, replacing the ladies toilets which are very old, and fixing holes in the roof where we’ve got water coming into the projection room.

“We’ll probably do those over the summer and then look to reopen with a proper programme of films in the autumn, building up to Christmas again.

“It’s very rare that you get a project like this which is just about goodwill and giving, and not worrying about who’s making out of it. 

“Everyone can see the benefit is for everybody so they’ve all happily given, and it’s been a lovely project to be part of.”

Find out more on the Woolton Picture House website.

Find more film showings across Liverpool on our website.

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