The Abbeydale Picture House
Creative Tourist
Abbeydale Picture House was the most magical and luxurious cinema when it opened back in 1920. Situated on Abbeydale Road in the Antiques Quarter of Sheffield, the Grade II listed venue is the only cinema of its era still operating in the city today.
One of Sheffield’s most iconic buildings, Abbeydale Picture House closed its doors as a cinema back in 1975 and operated as an office furniture showroom until 1991. Since then, multiple caretakers and restoration groups have returned this popular ‘picture palace’ to something approaching its former glory.
Today, the space is run by the Sheffield-based arts charity, Creative Arts Development Space who continue to renovate and restore, so that visitors can sit under the barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling for a regular programme of cinema, theatre and music events.
In more recent years, the Picture House has hosted film screenings – everything from silent films, paying homage to the cinema’s early days, to cult classics. Festivals like Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, Sensoria Music and Film Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest have all utilised the unique and grand setting of the 1920s style cinema too. There is also a regular flea market which takes place in the car park on the first Sunday of every month.
