The Royalty is a wee local cinema in Windermere, and seems like a quirky little place. Being a city girl, I'm normally at the huge multi-plexes, which are pretty one dimensional and soul-less, so I found it a nice experience, as The Royalty has a bit more character about it.
We went in the main entrance. There's an old-fashioned ticket seller's booth, but no-one was about. A queue formed, and we all waited and shuffled our feet. Around the foyer, there's a few pictures from ye olde cinema days which were interesting to look at. After a few minutes, an employee appeared on the balcony, and called down to us that the movie was showing on the other screen. Clearly we were a bunch of dummies, although perhaps a sign might have been helpful for customers. To get to the other screen, you leave that bit of the building, walk down the outside of the building and into the other entrance, which we all duly did.
In that building, there's another booth, and you get old fashioned paper tickets, which pleased me greatly, for reasons I'm not sure about. You can also buy confectionery.
The screen is then straight next to it so no traipsing about. Ideal. The screen room (is that what it's called?) had a bit of a strange feature. It seemed to me that the seats were on a slope. Pretty standard you might say. But sloping the wrong way! Resulting in the seats at the back being lower down than the front. Maybe it was an optical illusion but that's how it seemed to me.
There were the usual trailers, and amusing local adverts. Then a guy came out with an old-fashioned ice cream tray round his neck. I really wasn't expecting that! The only thing missing was an advert for Wrestler's hotdogs and a declaration that the non-smoking seats were at the side. Remember that - when you could smoke in a cinema?
The usual palaver with the curtains. Lovely gold shiny ones I noticed. Then the movie began.
The final quirk that I noticed is that they have put a litter bin right in the middle of the aisle. And people actually used it during the movie. So occasionally, as we were unwittingly sat right next to it, we'd get disturbed by someone thudding litter into it. Bit strange. But also, if you had to evacuate the cinema, it's totally in the way!
In summary, a reasonable wee cinema, with some funny little quirks to keep us city girls enthralled. read more