Heritage Open Days 2025: Inside rarely-seen 19th Century Sheffield bank vaults ‘hidden’ beneath Curzon cinema
The Curzon Cinema in Sheffield is running tours of the old bank vaults underneath its building, where a famous Hollywood actor once worked, as part of Heritage Open Days 2025 - and you can catch a glimpse in our video above.
A video tour shows the rarely seen ‘hidden’ bank vaults beneath the Curzon Cinema in Sheffield. The George Street building dates back to 1793 and was a bank from 1831 until the 1990s.
While the ground and first floor has been renovated, the old bank vaults beneath were left mostly unchanged.
Patrick McGoohan, who starred in The Prisoner and Braveheart, worked at a bank in the building during the 1940s before he went to Hollywood.
Manager at the Curzon Cinema in Sheffield Nigel McEnaney will be running tours of the vaults on September 17 as part of Heritage Open Days 2025. However, due to massive interest, these are now fully booked.
Nigel said: “Heritage Open Days, we did them when we first opened in 2015 and then we have not done them since.
“It's good to have people able to come see them. I keep trying to find more ways to squeeze people in, but it's a very small place. So we'll keep trying next year.”
What is Heritage Open Days?
Heritage Open Days is England's largest community-led festival of history and culture, involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations. Every year in September it offers people a chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences for free.
Heritage Open Days 2025 will run from September 12 to September 21. For a full a list of Sheffield and Yorkshire sites, plus further details visit the Heritage Open Days website.
Which other Sheffield sites are available to explore during Heritage Open Days?
- Sheffield Curios & Quizzical
- Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield
- Sheffield Hospitals History Collection
- Showroom Cinema, Sheffield - Projection tours
- Sheffield Town Hall 'Behind the Scenes' Tour
- Sheffield Castle Excavation and River Sheaf Tours
- Walkley: Sheffield Buddhist Centre past, present and future
- Beauchief Abbey
- Step Into the Story: The Lantern Revealed