Cinemas have evolved into multi complexes of several theatres enclosed within a building the size of a warehouse.

I’m still nostalgic for the old kind. The local picture house with a sweet shop outside selling Five Boys chocolate bars or the big picture palaces in towns and cities that had a grandeur to rival the live theatres they often replaced.

This got me thinking about the names they were called and which the public took for granted.

The adventures and melodramas on the silver screen, offered people a chance to escape from the realities of life in small two hour doses, before the soporophic invasion of television.

A trip to the pictures was special and the names given to these theatres of dreams reflected the escapism.

You couldn’t get grander than The Grand, The Majestic, The Princess or The Royal.

The Empire said it all, with Britain in charge of all those pink bits on a world atlas. The Ritz conjured images of a luxury hotel in London.

The Winston was presumably named after Churchill while the Premier intimated it showed only new films. Others had more esoteric names.

The Lyceum was where Aristotle taught in Ancient Greece and became an institution for learning and discourse, perfectly apt, you might think, for Laurel and Hardy. I think Aristotle would have been amused.

The Odeon was an Ancient Greek or Roman name for a building used for performances of poetry and music.

Curzon was a family name that came to Britain with the Norman Conquest.

The first Curzon cinema was named, not after the family, but after the street in which it was located in London.

The Savoy Theatre in London was built on the site of the Savoy Palace and the Alhambra was a grand palace in Spain. Both became well known names for picture palaces.

The Rialto has been a part of Venice for 1,000 years and much later was used as the name for the theatre district of a city, hence it became a cinema.

A Plaza was an open square or courtyard in Spain and came to be known for shopping and entertainment.

About the only Huddersfield cinema in the past that avoided such glitz and glamour and opted for a more homely feel was The Cosy Nook at Milnsbridge. Aaah. Bless.

But where does Excelda come from? There was an Excelda Cinema in Lockwood in the 1950s. But what did the name mean?