Help us solve a Hyde Park mystery at the LS6 Living Museum

At the Cardigan Celebration day in July, people told me how much they love living in the area, and how the students are part of that. A business owner who ran a laundrette for years told us she came to think of the students as her unofficial children. People brought in their photos of going to parties and going to the cinema, and told us how much the Hyde Park Picture House means to them. For many, being able to go this beautiful, and extremely bargainous, old heritage cinema was a large part of why they stayed in the area for so long. The cinema was key to many people’s memories, whether that was coming here after the pub for a long night of horror films, or coming here with a significant other just after getting engaged.

But it isn’t only the cinema, the students, or the many excellent takeaways, that people love about this area. Browsing old maps and old Kelly’s directories, people also told us that what they love about LS6 is the community.

As the doors opened at the LS6 Living Museum, we had a visit from somebody who volunteers at All Hallows Church. “Are you here with the Picture House?” she asked. “Here, you can have all these…” and she opened up a tote bag, revealing hundreds of photos inside.

She thought the photos were taken in the '90s, around the time the church was trying to get a volunteer lunch club running. Having looked at some of the photos, some of which show a local protest against the Iraq war, I actually think that these photos must be from the early 2000s.

Thanks to Claire, we now have about a hundred photos from the early days of All Hallows church becoming what it is now: the venue for Rainbow Junktion Cafe, and an LGBTQ+ inclusive venue, but unfortunately, we don’t know who any of the people in the photographs are. We would love to find them. There must be people who’ll recognise themselves, or somebody they knew. 

We’d love to be able to find the people in these photos, so we can reunite people with their own images and memories. Perhaps the people in the photos remember coming to visit the Hyde Park Picture House after a hard day fixing up the kitchen at All Hallows Church.

We’ll be running a Heritage Open Day on Saturday 16th September between 11am-3pm at the Picture House, and everybody is welcome. Whether you recognise yourself or a friend in one of these photos, or whether you’d just like to come and look at some of our old maps of the area and find out who lived in it before you, and what they did for a living, we’d love to see you. Come and share with us your memories of the local area, and your memories of coming to the cinema.

- SJ Bradley, LS6 Living Museum