Step back in time to golden age of movies

YOU won't believe this, but the dining room in England's finest Georgian town house used to be a venue for dog shows. But if you think poodles prancing on the parquet seems a bit far fetched, try this for size. In the 1920s, Fairfax House was known as the flea pit, because it was such a run-down picture house.

Today, it's in pristine condition once again, a tribute to the splendour of city living in Georgian York, which was the epicentre of polite society. And man's best friend is strictly forbidden.

However, there was more to 18th century England than sipping lemon tea and daintily picking at crust-free sandwiches. This was the age of Tom Jones, Henry Fielding's fallen hero who bed-hops his way out of a good home and almost into a hang man’s noose.

Fielding's novel, a rowdy romp through the mansions and taverns of Georgian England, was turned into a film in 1963. So, fittingly, it's one of 11 award-winning movies set in the 18th and early 19th centuries that will be screened in a festival to celebrate Fairfax House’s former life as St. George’s Cinema.

The event kicks off with a gala performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Leslie Howard, and house director Hannah Phillip promises a week full of similarly rollicking adventures, dashing heroes, rakish villains, not to mention feisty heroines as immortalised during the golden age of Hollywood.

"It's sometimes hard for us to portray other sides to 18th century life," says Hannah. "So this is a good opportunity. How accurate some of these films are I don't know, but it's the fun of them, the glamour and their swashbuckling nature."

The Silver Screen Festival is now in its fourth year, with previous themes including the Second World War and Murder and Mystery.

This is perhaps the most appropriate of all, with classic films celebrating the Georgian age, such as Mutiny On The Bounty, A Tale of Two Cities and Frenchman’s Creek bringing drama, romance and unbridled intrigue to the saloon's big screen.

But the festival has another purpose and that's where you come in. For some time, now, a team of volunteer interviewers has been gathering memories of Fairfax House.

The 1919 plans to convert St George’s Hall into a picture house
The 1919 plans to convert St George’s Hall into a picture house

The project began in collaboration with the University of York's public history unit. But with so many people left to interview when the initiative came to an end, Hannah says the decision was taken to continue the work and take it up a notch, by spreading the word more widely.

And, she says, York's Residents Festival is fertile ground. Last year 1,100 people came on the Saturday alone and plenty had a story to tell.

But Hannah says the best ones often creep through the back door. Sometimes literally. "One very respectable lady told us how she and her mates used to sneak people through the emergency exit when the commissionaire wasn't looking."

There are tales, too, of snogging in the back row, with a new one to be recorded for posterity this week. Hannah says people often don't realise how important their stories are and she really does want to hear them all.

Take the man who turned up with a picture of his father dressed as a commissionaire – "just in case it might be of interest".

"We said absolutely, are you sure we can have it?" says Hannah. "It's amazing how many people know this house through different guises and we want every little nugget we can get to build up a picture of what life was like here."

The collection now has posters, including one advertising George Formby's sister and niece Ethel and Frances, pictures of ice cream sellers and photos of usherettes, wearing jaunty caps.

The girls may look like sweetness and light, but they carried a torch and that, Hannah says, made them a formidable foe for back row couples.

St George's was also a dance hall until the mid 1960s and one of the most intriguing images in the collection dates from1934. It is of ballroom instructor Madame Fay. On the back is written "this has come from Mildred Odd, who was her pupil here".

There are scores of similar stories about the house's past roles from billeted soldiers who used the saloon door as a dartboard, to calisthenics classes and even those canine beauty contests.

"We only learned about those two weeks ago when a new volunteer called Albert told us his Basset hound Pru once won a teaspoon and had her name published in the paper."

"It's wonderful and this is precisely the sort of thing we want the project to bring forward, because we still don't know everything that went on here."

You'd have to go some to beat the dog shows, though.

York Residents Festival will be held on Saturday January 31 and Sunday February 1. The Silver Screen Festival opens at Fairfax House on February 2 with a black tie gala opening wearing 1930s or Georgian costume. To make a booking, phone 01904 655543.

For a full listing of films go to fairfaxhouse.co.uk.

PAST: Fairfax House when it was St George’s Hall

YORK’S first animated pictures were shown at the Theatre Royal in December 1896.

Film shows were later staged in the Opera House, the Festival Concert Rooms, the Exhibition Buildings and the Victoria Hall.

The first proper cinema was opened in 1908, when the former Wesleyan Chapel, New Street Hall, was converted.

York’s first purpose-built cinema was the Electric on Fossgate in 1911. It became the Scala in 1951 — and the building’s theatrical figure decorations can still be seen.

In 1914, the City Picture Palace opened on Fishergate. A year later, The Picture House brought films to Coney Street. And in 1921, St George’s Hall showed its first movie.