Devon Cinema Gazetteer

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HONITON

Castle

We learn from a mortgage dated 09.08.1916 that Henry Richard Harris was building quite an empire in Honiton.  He was a successful baker and confectioner and owned a fair section of the north side of the High Street including cottages behind the street.  One such property is described as the cinema, at 62 High Street.  It was called the Castle cinema at some stage Today the building is  a take away but high up on the building is the initials HRH.  Going down the passageway (also owned by Harris) it is possible to see the auditorium, which has now become residential accommodation.  The cinema is said to have opened around 1914 and operated until the end of the 1920s, however it may have operated for longer as it is unlikely the town would have been without a cinema for most of the 1930s.   Until the recent works the auditorium had survived remarkably well, including the balcony.

Devonia

Also on the High Street, at number 205 was built the Devonia, said to have opened in 1937, although records suggest more like 1935, built by Wessex Cinema Company Ltd.  The cinema was very similar to the Wellesley at Wellington Somerset and Cerdic at Chard Somerset, both built by the same company to basically the same plans, with minor alterations to the facades.  The architect was the prolific South Coast Cinema designer E de Wilde Holding.   The construction was undertaken by A S Prince of Bournemouth.

A stage was provided along with 410 seats and an Edibell sound system.  There was a small balcony.  After the war the sound system was changed to Western Electric.  CinemaScope had only recently been installed when disaster struck in 1962.  A fire broke out in the auditorium and destroyed that part of the building.   The company always intended to rebuild the cinema but this never happened and an auction rooms was built on the site of the auditorium.  The foyer and facade, basically untouched by the fire has been converted into a shop, with a somewhat unsightly conservatory like extension on the front.

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