MOVING PICTURES: A HISTORIC CITY WALK

1. Bridge Street

Looking towards Merchant’s Quay and Cork Opera House

Our walk begins at the bottom of Bridge Street, looking out towards Merchant’s Quay and Cork Opera House.

From here, we begin to explore two different “births” of film in Cork, tracing their stories through the changing geography of Bridge Street, MacCurtain Street and Brian Boru Street.

This part of the city was once home to important spaces for entertainment and performance, including the former Tivoli Cinema on Merchant’s Quay and Cork Opera House — setting the scene for a journey through Cork’s evolving relationship with film, theatre and popular entertainment.

2. Gallagher’s

Early Film on the Streets of Cork

At the beginning of the twentieth century, filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon captured remarkable moving images of everyday life across Britain and Ireland. Their films were made with a simple but powerful appeal: local films for local people.

In 1901 and 1902, their cameras came to Ireland, capturing streets, crowds, public events and familiar faces. Much of their Cork footage was filmed in the lead-up to the Cork International Exhibition of 1902, where moving pictures formed part of the entertainment on offer.

From here on MacCurtain Street — then known as King Street — we can retrace one of those journeys through Mitchell and Kenyon’s footage of a tram ride from King Street to St Patrick’s Bridge, offering an extraordinary glimpse of Cork more than 120 years ago.

Watch: A Tram Ride Through Cork

The Mitchell & Kenyon Collection

For decades, much of Mitchell and Kenyon’s work was thought lost. In 1994, rolls of nitrate film were discovered during demolition work at their former premises in Blackburn, preserved inside sealed barrels. The collection was later donated to the British Film Institute, bringing hundreds of films — including their remarkable recordings of Cork — back into public view.

Their surviving Cork films capture everything from the city’s streets and harbour to the Cork Fire Brigade, returning soldiers, regattas and the construction and opening of the 1902 Cork International Exhibition.

3. The Everyman Palace Theatre

From Variety Hall to Picture House

The Everyman opened as the Cork Palace Theatre on Easter Monday, 19 April 1897, under the direction of celebrated theatre impresario Dan Lowry. Its grand opening promised a “Gigantic Inaugural Company” and a “perfect shower of London Stars” — but among the variety acts was something Cork audiences were only beginning to encounter: moving pictures.

This artist’s impression of Cork Palace of Varieties was published in Illustrograph 5:31 (1896): 12 – the magazine is held in the collections of the National Library of Ireland and is shared via Denis Condon’s brilliant article on early Cork cinema “A taste in pictures”: the second birth of cinema in Cork, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 6, pp. 5-22.

Cork Daily Herald, Wednesday, 14 April 1897

The Grand Opening of the Cork Palace Theatre took place on Easter Monday Evening, 19th April 1897 boasting a Gigantic Inaugural Company  – a perfect shower of London Stars. The leading act was advertised as Professor Jolly’s World Renowned Cinematographe which would show a series of animated photographs including the original and only picture, obtained by special permission of the President of the French Republic of the Czar and Czarina’s Entry into Paris.

Watch the film here

4. SPAR / Wilkie’s Photography Studio

Before moving pictures transformed how Cork saw itself, photography was already capturing the city and its people.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, this building was home to Wilkie’s Photography Studio, purpose-built for photographer Archibald Wilkie. Look up at the unusual first-floor windows: the large south-facing window was designed to flood the studio with natural light, ideal for portrait photography.

Archibald Wilkie and Catherine Hickey on their wedding day in 1899, Archibald probably took the photograph by holding the bulb for the shutter remote in his right hand! The pair fell in love on MacCurtain Street as Catherine worked in a shop near Archibald’s studio. (Image courtesy of the Spillane Family).

This picture of Cade’s Mineral Water Manufacturers is courtesy of the Irish Examiner Archive. The two georgian townhouses and Cades were demolished in the 1960s to make way for Thompson’s ‘multi-purpose sponge plant’.

This detail from the image above shows an RIC officer looking at something diverting in the window of Wilkie’s Photographic Studio.

5. The Coliseum

A New Cinema for a New Street

Brian Boru Street was itself brand new when the Coliseum Cinema opened on this corner in September 1913. Originally known simply as “New Street”, it became home to one of Cork’s purpose-built cinemas at a time when film was becoming an entertainment destination in its own right.

The Coliseum was strikingly modern for its time, with a large canopy marking its corner entrance and space for an audience of 800 people — who, it was proudly claimed, could exit the building in just 60 seconds

This is Brian Boru Street, or as it was known when it was first ‘made’ in 1912 ‘New Street’. This picture must date from 1912 or early 1913 as the Coliseum Cinema soon occupied this corner – it opened in September 1913. (Image courtesy of Old Photos of Cork).

This image of The Coliseum from shortly after it opened in 1913 has been recently colourised. It shows the building in all of its modern glory with a large canopy over the corner entrance. Many of the windows and doors have been removed. When first opened, it was boasted that the audience of 800 could exit the building in 60 seconds. (Image courtesy of Youghal Film and Photography Museum).

The opening of the Coliseum advertised in the Cork Free Press on the 2nd  September 1913.

6. 58 MacCurtain Street

The Making of Cork’s Most Modern Street

MacCurtain Street as we know it today began to take shape following the construction of St Patrick’s Bridge in 1789. By 1801, then known as Strand Street, development had begun around Patrick’s Hill, while much of the north side of the street remained occupied by a large quarry.

That changed dramatically towards the end of the nineteenth century. Within just a few decades, a series of major new buildings transformed the area: Hibernian Buildings in 1879, Thompson’s Bakery in 1889, the Baptist Church in 1893, the Metropole Hotel and Everyman Palace in 1897, and Victoria Buildings in 1898.

By 1900, MacCurtain Street — by then known as King Street — had become one of the most modern streets in Cork, establishing it as a centre for commerce, hospitality and entertainment.

The street continued to evolve throughout the twentieth century. In 1967, Thompson’s Bakery constructed its enormous “multi-purpose sponge plant”, reportedly capable of producing a mile of Swiss roll a day at peak production. Several earlier buildings were demolished to make way for it, adding yet another layer to the constantly changing streetscape we see today.

This image from the First Ordnance Survey Map dates from 1841-2 and shows that the whole north side of the street is dominated by a cliff face which was quarried over the next 40 years. (Image courtesy of Tailte Éireann).

This 1869 Ordnance Survey Map of the same area shows the north side of the street still largely undeveloped. Note that to the east of the street no. 58 is marked as a Constabulary Barracks. (Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland).

The Second Edition OS Map of Cork was drawn in the late 1890s and shows the north side of the street now fully developed. The black area between King Street and St Patrick’s Quay is The Palace Theatre showing entries via both streets. (Image courtesy of Tailte Éireann).

7. The Metropole Hotel

At the Heart of MacCurtain Street

When the Metropole Hotel opened in 1897, it became part of the dramatic transformation of what was then King Street. The hotel occupied the upper floors of the building, while shops and businesses filled the street level alongside the neighbouring Palace Theatre.

The Metropole would later become closely connected to Cork’s film culture and Cork International Film Festival, welcoming filmmakers, actors and Festival guests over the decades — including English actor Dawn Addams, photographed here with Festival Director Dermot Breen in 1957.

The Metropole Hotel when first built in 1897. The hotel occupied the upper floors while the lower stories were occupied by a range of businesses. To the left you can see the one story provision merchants Scott, Harley and Co. To the right you can see the one storey entrance to The Palace Theatre with its glass canopy. Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

Advertisement of the luxurious Metropole Hotel courtesy of the Metropole Hotel Archive.

This image of King Street can be dated post 1897 and pre 1910 as it shows the Metropole Hotel before the fire that acted as a catalyst for an extension of the hotel as far as Harley Street.

English actor Dawn Addams embracing the Cork International Film Festival director Dermot Breen in 1957.

Supported by Cork City Council Local Heritage and Biodiversity Community Grant Scheme 2026.