THE attraction of a night at a Cumbrian cinema has survived the impact of TV, bingo, the VHS tape, DVD recordings and even computer downloads.

Many of the smaller town picture houses have been demolished, or given news uses, but still invoke nostalgia for the golden era of the big-screen movie.

Today's photographs take a look at the cinema experience at Carlisle and in Furness through the decades.

The Palace on Botchergate, Carlisle, opened in 1906 and was operated by the Barrow-based Signor Rino Pepi.

It showed a mix of film and popular theatre until becoming a full-time cinema in 1933.

After 1960 it became Studio Cinema with four screens by the 1970s.

It was closed by the Cannon Group in 1987.

The Argyle at Harraby was built in built in 1956 to serve a new housing estate and was run by Rural Cinemas and Entertainments.

It was closed in 1959 and converted to a bingo club, with later uses including a skating rink and a nightclub.

The building was demolished for housing in 2003.

Carlisle’s Lonsdale Cinema opened on September 21 in 1931 and had a Christie theatre organ.

It became an ABC cinema from 1937 and by the early 1970s it was split between a cinema with 586 seats and the Alpha Bingo Club.

The cinema closed in 2006 and was demolished to make way for a car park in 2014.

Carlisle’s Odeon opened on Botchergate in 1915.

In 1955 it was taken over by the Rank Organisation and renamed Gaumont and then Odeon from 1964. The cinema closed in May 1969 and was demolished in 1999.

The last of Barrow's traditional cinemas to close was the Apollo, on the corner of Abbey Road and Holker Street. It is now the site of the Emlyn Hughes House office block.

It was opened as a luxury venue for 2,000 people on September 14 in 1936 and featured a Crompton organ which rose from beneath a stage.

The Electric in Buccleuch Street was Barrow’s first purpose-built cinema and opened on September 8 in 1910. It closed on June 20 in 1957.

Barrow's Coliseum stood close to the junction of Abbey Road and Rawlinson Street and opened on September 8th in 1914. It closed in January 1964.

The old Walney Island cinema, on Natal Road, opened on November 1 in 1915 to help provide ‘safe’ entertainment for the thousands of new workers in the munitions plant at Vickers.

The Essoldo, on Abbey Road, Barrow, opened in 1913 and closed in 1964.

Barrow's Odeon cinema was on the corner of Cavendish Street and Dalkeith Street and opened as The Roxy on August 9 in 1937.

It was owned by James Brennan and the the first film was the Charge of the Light Brigade starring Errol Flynn.

In November 1945 the name was changed to the Odeon and it had its own children’s club called the Birthday Club.

The name changed to the Classic in 1967 and closed in June 1976 to emerge as the Champers Nightclub.