The back room tour begins at the bottom of the age old cast iron staircase, leading up to the projection room. The orange brick wall in the back ground runs almost wall to wall with St Peters church hall. A classic example of how the architect and interior designers had to adapt to the limited space during the construction of the cinema
Looking down from the top of the spiral staircase there are nineteen steps to negotiate. Although at first sight this looks like a very glamorous way to enter and exit your work place, after carrying two large film transit cases up and down it every week you may probably see it from another point of view.
Standing at the top of the spiral staircase looking in towards the projection room. Reminiscent of a certain scene from cinema paradiso, we see our first glimpse of the old spool cabinet, along with some of the twenty minute film spools. In the days of spontaneous combustible nitrate film it was mandatory to keep each reel of film confined to its own draw of the spool cupboard with the fire door tightly closed. An average size feature film was usually six reels or more, consisting of the main feature on the top shelf and the supporting feature on the bottom.
Due to the highly inflammable materials handled within the workplace of a public building, in order to satisfy local fire regulations it was necessary to install three 2 inch thick heavy duty fire doors. Thankfully with the advances of modern technology the threat of Combustible film all but disappeared with the introduction of polyester based film stock as opposed to nitrate.
