It’s 20 years since City Screen changed moviegoing in York forever

This week marks 20 years since City Screen opened on its riverside site.

It was partly a new-build and partly a conversion of the old office and printworks of The Yorkshire Herald, which you can still see emblazoned across the top of the building when standing on the other side of the river.

Since May 1987 City Screen had operated out of Tempest Anderson Hall in Museum Gardens.

But in 1997 York Film Theatre, which ran City Screen, entered into a ground-breaking public-private partnership with a commercial arts cinema group, coincidentally called City Screen Limited, to create a new art-house cinema in the city centre.

In 1998 the partnership won an Arts Council Lottery Award of £2.37 million, and this sum was matched by City Screen Ltd, to purchase and renovate The Yorkshire Herald newspaper building which had stood derelict since 1989.

First films

The new City Screen York opened for business in January 2000 with Bringing Out The Dead, The Limey, The Darkest Light, and Buena Vista Social Club.

General manager Tony Clarke, and his associate general manager Cath Sharp, have been there since the opening.

Tony chose Buena Vista Social Club, “which has probably best stood the test of time”, to show again on the 20th anniversary on Tuesday (7 January).

The screening was free to Picturehouse members.