The large former cinema complex on the corner of Steep Turnpike and Causeway Lane had only just been built when this photograph was taken. The row of shops next door to the cinema were still being fitted out. There's an estate agent's board next to the pavement and a man is at the top of a ladder doing something to the front of the shops building.

The Cinema House, where George Woodman was manager in 1925^[1], was opened around 1922. Cinema going had become increasingly popular and Matlock Cinema House was Matlock's second cinema - the Picture Palace on Dale Road had opened about 1916.

It wasn't until around the New Year of 1955 that Northern Cinemas, by then the cinema's owners, decided to change the name to The Ritz Cinema. The Council were in uproar about the new name. Anything would apparently have been acceptable but definitely NOT The Ritz! Whilst Northern Cinemas couldn't have been overduly bothered by the association, what upset the Council was that the same name had been used by "a fried fish shop" which had been somewhere adjacent to the cinema and which the Council had closed down not long before!^[2]

The films advertised on the bill boards have helped to date the picture. Although it is difficult to read all the words, the double bill included two films that were came out in 1922. "Skin Deep" was a film directed by Lambert Hillyer that starred, amongst others, Milton Sills and Florence Vidor. The second film was "The Glory of Clementina" which starred Pauline Frederick. The same bill board announces that the Café was open daily during the week from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and on Sundays between 3 and 7 p.m.