Ultimate Picture Palace

Frank Stuart opened Oxford's first cinema, the Electric Theatre, in Castle Street, in 1910. He was the licensee of the Elm Tree pub on the corner of Cowley Road and Jeune Street. Also in 1910 work started to build Stuart's second cinema on land in Jeune Street behind the Elm Tree. It opened on 24 February 1911 as the Oxford Picture Palace. In 1917 the manager was conscripted to serve in the First World War. The cinema was closed and stood unused for many years before being turned into a furniture warehouse. In 1976 Bill Heine and Pablo Butcher They added a sculpture of Al Jolson's hands by John Buckley to the façade. For a month that summer it was squatted by the Oxford Freedom Network,…