Piccadilly

The Piccadilly Arcade revisits its past as an opulent picturehouse in the silent era.

Those who went on last year’s popular Invisible Cinema walking tour will already know some of the history surrounding one of Birmingham’s earliest cinemas, The Picture House on New Street.  It opened in 1910 but survived only 16 years; a brief but glamorous life for the movie theatre. Turned into a retail emporium shortly afterwards, now known as Piccadilly Arcade, the building’s New Street facade retains many of its original features. We’ll be paying homage to the arcade’s former cinema self for a screening of the classic British silent film, Piccadilly, starring Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong.