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• Location
  
• The Building
  
• The Naz
  
• Old Films
  
• Closure
  
• Fire Disaster
  

Location
On the North side of Carlisle Road between Ambler Street and Anderson Street in a converted chapel building. Carlisle Road is part of the Bradford ring road and the surrounding Victorian terraced housing is now home to a large thriving Asian community.

The Building
Originally the Manningham Methodist Church with a large imposing Victorian stone frontage facing Carlisle Road and with steps to a central entrance and a four-storey high roof with curved (vaulted) central section.

A massive wooden framework was attached to the front of the building to accommodate large film posters which were illuminated at night. The Sangeet opened with all-Asian films in 1970 and continued with a programme of the more popular Hindi films of Bollywood.

The Naz
A smaller cinema, The Naz, was created in the rear of the building with its own entrance in Ambler Street. It seems the Naz was only used on an occasional basis and its main function was to show Pakistani films and no documented information has been found.

The huge building also contained other Asian businesses, two restaurants, a records and electronics shop and a bank.

Old Films
A criticism of both the Sangeet and Naz was that the films were too old. There was also competition from the nearby Liberty (formerly Marlboro) which was also showing Asian films at this time.

The T&A (7 Feb 1979) conducted a survey of conditions prevailing in the city's four Asian cinemas - Majestic, Liberty, Arcadian and Sangeet. The Sangeet faired quite well and was considered warm enough. Malik Rab Nawaz, Sangeet's owner, tried to meet the wishes of his customers and found it easier to heat the Sangeet due to it being smaller and with lower ceiling than the other cinemas. The Sangeet was considered ". . . of fairly high decorative standard" and damaged seats had been replaced.

Closure
The Sangeet ceased showing films in mid-March 1980. Its owner Malik Rab Nawaz having decided not to continue due to falling customers and economic reasons. The building remained closed.

Fire Disaster
The Telegraph & Argus (3rd July 1986) reported that a spectacular fire gutted the former Sangeet Cinema. It was the fifth fire to hit the building in the last fourteen months.

Smoke had been seen pouring from a third floor window and firemen evacuated staff from the adjoining Shah Restaurant which had opened only a fortnight before; the restaurant was badly damaged by falling debris and water.

The blaze quickly spread through the empty cinema and ripped through the roof. The building was later demolished.