May 16, 2012 by Nostra - 0 comments

The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Oscar

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In this series I take a look at cinemas in Rotterdam that have closed down. This week it’s the Oscar cinema. It opened in the centre of Rotterdam in 1975 at the Meent and closed it’s doors in 1989 and had 215 seats.

What surprised me though is that I didn’t know it existed even though I could have walked past it when I was younger. I asked my parents and other people about this, but no one could remember it. It was the one where the original location eluded me. I had an idea of its location, but no one could confirm it. I came into contact with someone who’s grandmother used to work there, but even he couldn’t pinpoint where it was after I sent him some pictures. It took me two weeks of research to finally track it down and once I thought I found the location I couldn’t wait to see if I was right. Continue reading →

May 10, 2012 by Nostra - 2 Comments

The Lost Cinemas of Rotterdam: Alhambra

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My search for cinemas that were lost to time continues. This week with the Alhambra cinema, which opened in 1979 and closed in 1995, had 195 seats and was located on the Coolsingel. It’s a cinema I do remember because it was converted to a “riskbioscoop”, which meant that it showed older movies which you could watch for just 2 and a half guilder (which would be around 1 euro 10). As a teenager it meant a very cheap way to get out of the house and watch a movie and I would be there often. Continue reading →

May 3, 2012 by Nostra - 5 Comments

The lost cinemas of Rotterdam: Centraal

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Back in October last year one of the Monday questions was about the first movie you saw at the cinema. I remembered the movie and the location of the cinema, but not what the name was. It was the start of journey into the history of cinemas in Rotterdam. I bought the book “Fantasy, Illusion and enchantment: Memories of cinemas in Rotterdam” by Herman Romer and found out more about the rich cinema history the city I was born and grew up in has. Henk Berg has also written a great book about the subject. In this new series I literally look into that history (using information out of their books as a source), one cinema at a time, starting with “Centraal”, which gave me my first movie going experience. Continue reading →