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Oxford Picture Hall/Oxford Cinema Dudley Hill Road Road, Undercliffe, Bradford. 
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 Early History In March 1913 a new company, Undercliffe Picture House Company Ltd, was formed with £3,000 in £1 shares with the aim to build a permanent cinema. A suitable plot of land was found at Dudley Hill Road and purchased from D.H Waterhouse, R Sowden and Mary Sowden. The Company registered on 23rd February 1914. The directors were listed as W Priestley, L Kitchen, Tom Thornton, A Holdsworth, Cecil Barnett, J.E Rouse and A Cansfield. Location The Building Interior The auditorium was long and narrow with its 678 seats in three blocks with two aisles and the rake following the natural slope of the land. The rear central block of seats was raised up on a low platform providing a better view for the top price. Its barrel vaulted ceiling with pendant light fittings providing a clear view of the rear wall on which the screen was directly mounted. There was no stage or proscenium opening. The screen with rounded corners was 17feet 6inches from the front row. The projection room (literally a box) projected out into the front lobby and was accessed at each side by a fireproof sliding door and up two steps. Two projectors were installed. The rewind, storage and rectifier room was in the cellar on the left-hand side of the lobby and the toilets to the right-hand side. For the children's matinées, a separate entrance with small paybox was used to the right of the screen and entering from Elbow Lane. This kept the children out of the cleaned and polished main entrance and, more importantly, stopped them from crowding on the very narrow pavement next to a busy road. The Opening Special Attractions for Easter A few days later the Bradford Daily Argus reported on the successful Easter weekend films . . . "The Oxford, Undercliffe's new home of pictures, opened its doors to large and appreciative Easter Holiday crowds yesterday (Monday 13th April 1914). The management have been fortunate enough to book an exclusive . . . By the 1920's prices had risen to 6d to 1/-d and G. Cole now the resident manager. There were two programme changes weekly. Talkies The projectors as seen in 1950 each had a non-sync turntable at the rear of the base but it is not clear if this was ever used prior to optical sync sound being installed. The 1950's However, the Oxford had not kept pace with modernisation and was becoming very shabby and old fashioned resulting in its closure on Sunday 11th September 1955 major for alterations. Refurbishment and Re-opening The Oxford re-opened on Monday 17th October 1955 boasting an entirely new look . . . Re-decorated, re-seated A this time the Oxford was run in conjunction with the Coventry Hall in Wakefield Road. The panoramic screen was later adapted for CinemaScope. Midnight Matinée Tonight Midnight Matinée The local people were not used to paying such high prices at the Oxford but the Midnight Matinée was well supported. By the early 1960's the cinema had come under the ownership of Threedee Ltd of Liverpool. From Thursday 13th December 1962 it became Oxford Bingo and Social Club for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and films for the remainder of the week but temporarily closed for alterations on Saturday 18th December 1965. The cinema re-opened again on Sunday 26th December 1965 at 5.00pm with . . . "Bed Without Breakfast" - 1957 Denmark B/w 81mins. Final Closure "The Stooges Go West" - 1951 USA B/w 56mins. Whilst on the final Sunday 9th January 1966 it was . . . "Fire Over England" - 1937 UK B/w 92mins. Opens as Bingo Club Currently in 2007 it is operated by Stuart Nuttall's Kingsway Bingo of Brighouse and run in conjunction with Kingsway's similar operation at the former Plaza cinema in Cross Lane - this latter hall closing in July 2007. May not be copied or reproduced without permission.
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After extensive refurbishment including the building of a new proscenium opening with a new panoramic widescreen plus screen curtains. The seating had been rearranged into a single block with side aisles. A curious arrangement for the period when smoking was rife in cinemas, the majority of the rows had ashtrays on the rear of each alternate seat except for the back few rows of better quality seats which had none at all - rather odd as there is no evidence of this being non-smoking area. The dingy pendant light fittings of the past were now replaced by brighter rectangular panels recessed into the barrel vaulted ceiling.