The Lost Cinemas of Castle Park App
University of the West of England
The Lost Cinemas of Castle Park, is a heritage app that celebrates over 100-years of cinema-going in Bristol city centre, now available from iTunes. The app covers 16 cinemas in and around the park, from the first moving pictures screened at the Tivoli, Broadmead in 1896 to the present day.
Made by
Charlotte Crofts
Charlotte Crofts is a creative producer and Professor of Cinema Arts at University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).Keiron Gurner
Jo Reid Calvium
The Lost Cinemas of Castle Park App is an audio tour of Castle Park, Bristol's original commercial and leisure district that was destroyed in World War 2, and the surrounding area. The park itself was the site of five cinemas: The Queens, The News Theatre, The Dolphin, The Caslte and The Regent, a giant 2000 seater supercinema which was obliterated in the Blitz. A total of 16 cinemas appear in the app, but - apart from the Watershed - none of these historic cinemas are extant save the Odeon - which presents the challenge of how to bring the invisible history of these buildings to life. We wanted to create a more immersive, cinematic experience and consequently moved away from the text-heavy interface of some apps to focus greater concentration on audio, with pared down images and background map.
The app was developed in collaboration with Kerion Gurner, and grew out of the REACT Heritage Sandbox City Strata knowledge exchange collaboration with Calvium.
The app is available for iPhone/iPad, you can download it here.
