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Gazetteer
family of Fox, who were in the shipping trade. The building in Arwenack
Street was constructed in 1835 as a centre for the arts and sciences. The
building included an exhibition hall and was extended with a stage around
1900.
Films were first shown in 1910 by the society.
The cinema became a commercial enterprise during the 1920s when Harris
Brothers ran the operation and in the 1930s by Grand Theatre (Falmouth) Ltd,
operators of the Grand in Market Street. The commercial operation ended
early 1950s.
In 1969 a floor was placed halfway up the hall to create a gallery space above
the theatre. The cinema programme remains, specialising in foreign and art
house pictures. 199 seats.
which opened on 4th November 1912 for cinema and music hall entertainment.
They traded as St George's Hall (Falmouth) Ltd and the hall could seat over 900.
showing fruit and flowers. Ever modest HB appears in the centre to remind us
of the owners, and only higher up do we find the name of the building and the
date of construction. The interior walls had elaborate tapestry pictures.
Western Electric sound was installed.
The foyer was triangular in shape as the road and auditorium were on different
alignments. There were pay boxes on either side of steps leading to a landing
and access to stalls. Here the stairs split and travelled in opposite directions
and turned toward the front of the building. The staircases were finely carved
The left stairscase only lead to the ladies toilets. The right stairs lead into the
gallery and projection box.
There were 220 seats in the gallery and 680 in the stalls. The proscenium was
old fashioned, being high and narrow. There was wood panelling around the
stage and the small gallery at the rear of the hall had a decorative plaster front.
In 1930 revisions were made to the foyer to plans by Claud Russell Corfield
ARIBA of Falmouth. The left stairs were extended up through ladies toilets to
give additional access to the gallery. This resulted in no access to the ladies
toilets so a walkway was added from the stairs that went out and around the
new stairs, all suspended over the foyer.
The cinema was taken over by Union Cinemas Ltd in 1936 along with the Grand
just along the street. ABC took over Union in October 1937 and continued to
operate the cinema with the same name until a fire closed the cinema on 4th
March 1948.
Today the fine facade has been restored and is very impressive. Inside there is
now a market, and some evidence of the original structure and doors
suggesting the fire was not that severe, in the front part of the building at
least.
Falmouth, St George's Hall
most likely taken when
Union took over the venue.
Daylight can be seen
entering the auditorium
through the ceiling.
Photos: Cinema Theatre
Association
and opened around 1914. Later taken over by Harris
Brothers, they closed it when they opened the Polytechnic
full time around 1923. It is quite likely a purpose built early
cinema and has survived externally remarkably well.
elements of the existing buildings illustrate the unusual position
of this theatre.
The Theatre Royal was probably already standing when it was
converted for cinema use by Harris Brothers. The plans by Claud
Russell Corfield ARIBA of Falmouth dated February 1927 show
calculations regarding sight lines with regard to re-stepping the
circle and positioning of projection box and screen on the stage.
The building occupied land behind Royal Hotel, the prominent
corner building. It cleverly gained an entrance onto Market Street
by using the hotels old stable yard archway as an entrance. This
led to a forecourt with the theatre entrance immediately ahead.
Today the archway and forecourt are blocked in as a QS shop. It
is not clear whether only the facade remained on market Street or
whether a room of the hotel was over the entrance behind the
columned window we see today.
The actual theatre frontage at the back of the forecourt consisted
of steps leading to three sets of double doors. Above each set of
doors was a round window, and above the three round windows
were three rectangular windows. Opened on 28th January 1928 as
the Grand Theatre, this would have been the Theatre Royal. The
seating capacity was 930 and the building had a 26' deep stage and
6 dressing rooms. Stage plays were commonplace during the
summer season. The sound system was Western Electric, and the
first talkie was Broadway Melody.
Taken over by Union Cinemas Ltd in 1936 they were merged with
ABC in October 1937. ABC architect W R Glen FRIAS LRIBA was
brought in to make improvements to the building. The plans of
January 1946 mainly involve changes to the lavatory and boiler
accommodation and will not be described here. However the
plans do give some detailed information. Access to the projection
room was via spiral staircases at either end of the balcony lounge.
A substansial extension had been added to the right of the
auditorium and was called the Pantomime room, probably
providing additional dressing rooms for live shows. All exits other
than back out through the front were into the lane down the left
side of the building called Fish Strand Hill. The Royal Hotel
remained on the corner of the site to the left of the forecourt
(now HSBC), while a branch of Burton's was to the right. At this
time the total seating was 990, 686 in the stalls and 304 in balcony.
photograph
s probably
taken at the
same time
as those of
the St
George's
Hall.
Photos:
Cinema
Theatre
Association
The original proscenium, orchestra pit and front of stage was removed. New anti proscenium walls are
added to link the existing walls to a new proscenium (32' wide) set around the screen (30' by 15') further
back on the stage. The space then available in the auditorium was used for extra seats. The existing front
stalls exits also had to be moved into the new anti proscenium so that there was always to be a fire exit in
front of the seating.
The building was renamed ABC around 1961 and closed in 1968 for bingo. This decision was quickly reversed
when the Odeon closed in 1970 and the ABC cinema reopened to films on 4th May 1970. The cinema was
leased to Cine-Enterprises (Cornwall) Ltd. from 18th March 1976 and renamed Grand, eventually closing 31st
January 1986 and in 1988 was demolished leaving the earlier facade on Market Street. Luckily someone had
the idea of saving the original Royal Arms, that probably dated from Theatre Royal days and were most likely
originally displayed above the proscenium. This is attached to the new building on the side street.
occupied a site formally Carne's Brewery, licencee Percival Richard
Slater. The seating capacity was 1,148 on a stadium plan. The cost
was £24,305 which bought an impressive faience clad cinema with
an acceptable balance of "Odeon curves and right angles". The
bulk of the building being hidden within the surrounding
buildings. The auditorium was streamlined and simple, with a
proscenium opening of 58ft, the architect was Harry W Weedon
assisted by P J Price.
Examining Mr Weedon's plans dated 16th October 1935, the design
of the frontage makes excellent sense. The frontage does not
follow the line of the buildings on either side, but instead is
angled into the site. To correct the far end of the building with
the adjoining building a tower is constructed that appears to stick
out into the road, but only sticks out to the road line. The
advantage of this is to give a flat second frontage facing down the
street, so that it could be clearly seen from the busy Market
Place, where as now, all the buses stop. This tower would feature
an Odeon sign, but not as shown on the plans. These show a sign
at the very top of the tower running around the corner. A shop
was set into the main facade, left of the entrance and a further
shop within the tower itself.
Later plans show that an entrance was created from the left shop
into the foyer. It was quite common at that time for "Odeon
Shops" to operate, selling sweets. Another nice find is a letter
from Circuits Management Association specifying an order for new
front doors for the cinema
"To be constructed of hard wood with six panels of reinforced
non-splinter 1/4'' clear plate glass. When hung same to be self
closing by means of a spring".
Cinemascope was later fitted and the screen was 41' 6" by 17' 6" at
its largest. The sound was Kaleezo. On 17th Deceber 1967 the
cinema was transferred to Classic Cinemas Ltd and renamed
Classic, closing on 3rd May 1970. The building was demolished and
a supermarket built that remains today.
By contrast to Union/ABCs ageing halls in this town the Odeon
must have made a big impression, and the people of Falmouth,
not by any sense one of the largest towns in Cornwall, were very
fortunate indeed to have such a cinema built in their town.
Falmouth Odeon cinema. The tiles on the
facade are still being completed. The
auditorium is boldly modern.
Photos: Cinema Theatre Association
campaign site:
www.falmouthcinema.co.uk
