The Heavenly Hyde Park Picture House chooses Quality Quinette 
The Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds was born in November 1914 and is one of the UK’s oldest cinemas. It began by showing patriotic black and white (then silent) films, including newsreels, to boost morale during the war.  In 1930 “talkies” arrived and an Art Deco projection wall was built in front of the original to facilitate the new technology.  

As with many cinemas over the years, the Hyde Park has been through some difficult times.  In 1958 it closed temporarily and as part of a publicity stunt before reopening, an elephant paraded outside to advertise the screening of the forthcoming film “The Big Hunt”.  

In 1984, supporters of the struggling cinema formed the Friends of Hyde Park Picture House who worked tirelessly on fundraising to ensure the cinema’s future. Following its centenary in 2014, The Picture House Project was formed.  Again, the Friends of Hyde Park Picture House were heavily involved in raising money, getting funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.  So much hard work over so many years!

The cinema temporarily closed in 2023.  Before reopening and after refurbishment, the cinema was brought into the 21st Century.  It included adding a screen in the basement and specialist attention was given to conservation and heritage features. In advance of the refurbishment and to ensure that the integrity of the building’s character remained, Ferco Seating Ltd were consulted. The brief was to provide new seating that complimented the older décor yet was seamless with the new.

Ollie Jenkins, Marketing & Communications Manager of Hyde Park says:
“The Picture House Project – our recent redevelopment scheme – was a once in a generation opportunity breathe new life into the Hyde Park Picture House and improve everything at the cinema, from accessibility and conservation, to sustainability and comfort. A big part of the project was finding the right new seats – something our audience were especially eager for us to get right. The challenge was finding seats that were both super comfortable, but also in keeping with our heritage building and brand new second screen. We’re delighted to say that the Quinette seats supplied by Ferco definitely ticked both of those boxes – looking really at home in both our refurbished cinema, and scoring an impressive 4.5 out of 5 with audiences in our post-screening survey. We look forward to continuing to work with Ferco on the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the seats and are confident they’ll stand the test of time as we welcome more audiences than ever before through our doors”.

The seating refurbishment

• Theatre 1 on the Ground floor, 138 Quinette Madrid BR seats (fabric is 501 red Veltoseat Opera) with cupholders were installed.  The first-row seats are removable and there is also provision for extra DDA space in the last two rows.
• Theatre 2 there are 42 Madrid Quinette BR seats (fabric is 513 taupe Veltoseat) with cupholders and in the last row, 3 seats can be removed.
• The Balcony, there are 97 Quinette Tokyo seats (again in 501 red Veltoseat Opera) with cupholders. All seats have numbered numbers and row letters. The character of the original venue remains.  It is without doubt a beautiful, much-loved venue.