When someone tells you they've found a hidden gem they don't usually mean it's literally hidden but that's how it feels when you visit Southport's Bijou Cinema for the first time.
It's a community cinema tucked into Post Office Avenue, a single lane cut through a stone's throws from Lord Street and backing onto Sainsbury's car park. There's a little sign and then a sort of ginnel and then you're passing through a large Victorian doorway into the town's newest and smallest cinema.
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Usually there's a member of staff or volunteer on the door smiling and directing you to the bar for tickets (£6 each) and drinks (tea, coffee, biscuits but also stronger stuff if you're not driving). Ahead there's the rather large chalkboard where visitors scribble ideas for films they'd like to see: On my visit Muriel's Wedding, Rambo, 48 Hours, The Abyss, Jaws, Brief Encounter, and Goodbye Mr Chips have been suggested, as well as dozens of others. It's an eclectic mix.
The Bijou Cinema was recently nominated as one of ten Hidden Gems in the Liverpool City Region Tourism Awards. You can see the others and vote here. Having been there loads of times I had no hesitation in giving them my vote.
The Bijou has given me the opportunity to see Strangers on a Train, Dial M For murder, Thelma and Louise, Twelve Angry Men, Terminator 2 and Die Hard on the big screen for the first time (well biggish screen, it's about 5m wide so still well beyond even the largest of home widescreens). Seeing Die Hard with proper surround sound and an audience was a brilliant experience considering I must have already seen it dozens of times on video and DVD.
I've also taken my mum there to see John Wayne/John Ford classic The Quiet Man, a favourite of her late brother and something we couldn't have done together at most cinemas. As well as classics they also show more recent but perhaps little known films that perhaps wouldn't trouble your local Odeon.
It's that mix that draws such a loyal crowd. On my last visit the performance was Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The 75 seat cinema was full with just a few single seats dotted about and late coming couples who couldn't sit together were finding alternate arrangements. Luckily for us a lady switched seats and we were soon gabbing with strangers about the full house and the film, remarking you wouldn't get many people offering their seat at a multiplex, or glugging white wine and Sandgrounder beer as the majority of the audience seemed to be.
I later contacted Bijou manager Andy Harrison to tell him I wanted to write about them and he immediately focused on the purpose of a community for film lovers, as envisaged by Mike Lockwood, the driving force behind the Bijou who died in 2021. He said: "Mike's wish was, when you go to multiplexes it's not in the nature of them to hang out after a film and talk about what you have seen. Mike being an older person on his own he knew you can't discuss what you have seen when you had no one to talk to. You saw the film and that was it. He wanted a place where people could come, watch a film, sit and talk to each other and share their passion for film and it seems to have really worked."
Andy, 27, is a native of Southport and has a film degree from Edge Hill University. His previous jobs were mostly managing local bars. That changed when he met Mike. "We met at a film club in Southport. That was in 2016 or 2017 and he mentioned he'd been planning to open a cinema for years.
"In 2019 he got back in touch to say it was going ahead but with him being in his 70s he wanted someone to manage and run it. He knew me and that I had a hospitality background so that's how I came to be the manager. We opened in October 2019 so we only had six or seven months before we had to shut due to the pandemic but it was enough time to get a bit of an audience that helped us to keep going. Lewis and Phil soon came on board and the rest is history.
"Mike got to see the business up and running but he passed away in January 2021. I wish I he could see it now."
Converted from what was originally Southport's post master's house, The Bijou is now a community interest company with Andy joined by staff members Lewis Simpson and Phil Pierce, as well as a group of volunteers who help out with ushering duties, social media, making cakes and all the other things a cinema needs. The cinema is on the ground floor and upstairs is a function room where they have branched out into comedy gigs and a monthly music night. Check out forthcoming events here. Tickets for films are £6 and £5 to members. It's a little gem.
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