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Cinema Gazetteer
Regal ~Savoy
is varied. Records suggest a theatre on
the site as early as 1792. In the 1830s it
was a flannel exchange with Assembly
Rooms. This soon become an Oddfellows
Hall, before again becoming Bell Assembly
Rooms of the neighbouring Bell Inn in 1849.
In 1850 it is first referred to as a theatre
either as Theatre Royal or New Theatre,
but by 1865 it has reverted to its original
purpose of exchange, now Corn. How many
rebuilts have occurred is unclear.
By 1909 it is The Bell Skating Rink, when
this fails it becomes a cinema as the
Rinkeries Picture Palace in 1910, by 1914
trading as The Cinema under Colin Knight
MD of Motion Picture Co. Ltd. During
improvements in 1917 by John Smith a new
entrance is established through an existing
Georgian building on Church Street. Prior
to this the entrance had been at the far end
of the site on Priory Street or on Bell Lane.
The long narrow plot being bordered by Bell
Lane on one side and St James Church on
the other. The seating capacity of the
auditorium was about 400. The cinema
may for a brief period been called the
Scala, then around 1923 became the
Palace.
It was about 1927 that Albany Ward
purchases the property decides on a total
rebuild. The auditorium we see today dates
from this rebuild. Within months of this work
starting Albany Ward merges with Provincial
Cinematograph Theatres and it is likely
PCT added elements to the design such as
the boxes at the rear of the balcony, where
we would normally expect the projection
box, which is situated beneath the balcony.
with the foyer in the existing Church
Street structure is a strange one. The
upper storeys did not belong to the
cinema with the foyer being a long low
dark corridor space arriving at the back
of the Church Street property where it is
a single storey structure and splits to
access the stalls around the central
projection box and a very grand
staircase is tucked away around the
corner along side to reach the balcony
and boxes. The high rear of the
auditorium ends suddenly at the
boundary of properties, perhaps to
facilitate light entering the upper floors
of the pre-existing building. Certainly if
both properties had been joint owned
the auditorium structure would certainly
have been built right into the existing
building and allowed room for a cafe or
spacous lounge. Initially PCT
advertised the opening of a new Regent
for Monmouth, Regent being the name
given to their top cinemas, but the
cinema opens on 5th March 1928 as
Picture House, a preferred name of
Albany Ward.
The new cinema has 600 seats The
elaborate curved paybox with ornate
grille work in the foyer feels out of place
and is said not to be original. The
auditorium has a barrel ceiling and walls
made up of panels each with figures
within oval cartouches. The effect is
fantastic, if somewhat over the top for a
relatively small space. The balcony is
set quite high to allow for the projection
below making the audience in the
balcony feel somewhat isolated due to
the narrow gap caused by the sudden
drop in ceiling height at the front of the
balcony. None the less this is a very
important surviving example of 1920s
cinema architecture that has
miraculously survived.
was left to carry on its business as before. Post War Gaumont Kalee
20 projectors were installed. That is until 5th January 1958 when, along
with a number of other local Gaumont owned cinemas was sold as a
circuit to Bernard T Davis of Lombard House, Great Charles Street,
Birmingham. He registers the cinema as a company called Monmouth
Picture House Ltd. By this point the cinema is equipped with
CinemaScope and just over 500 seats. The cinema is renamed Regal
on 4th April 1971 and closed 4th July 1981 with The Postman Always
Rings Twice. The leasee Ray Lambert fell out with owner Geoffrey
Mason. In 1987 the building is reopened as a magic lantern theatre
with 124 seats, with some film shows, but soon closed.
In 1990 Mr S Wischhusen of the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe drew up plans
to reopen the cinema, but this did not proceed. The cinema is then
leased by Buccaneer Leisure of Taunton who reintroduce Saturday
Matinee's, this was part of a staggered reopening including the
redecoration and refurbishment of the cinema, but by January 1994 this
operation had run into financial difficulties and also shut.
Finally help was on the way as Mr Michael Blakemore of Capitol Film
Centre in Birmingham, Hollihead and Flint takes the lease in July 1995
renaming the cinema Savoy and reopening with The Fox and the
Hound on 28th July 1995. Soon live shows return to the 15' deep stage
and the 5 dressing rooms and orchestra pit have found a new lease of
life. The Savoy Theatre is still operating today with a mix of films and
live productions. The building is Grade II listed.
www.savoytrust.org.uk
venue built and donated to Monmouth
by John Allan Rolls. It included the
large hall with a gallery stage and an
organ. Situated in Commercial Street
the building was opened in 1887 and
the architect was F A Powell FRIBA.
The building is well looked after by the
council and in recent times has
become the home of the towns library.
While visiting the library readers can
look up at the fine plasterwork and still
clearly see the proscenium arch at the
far end of the hall. The original arch
was flanked by pairs of columns but at
some point the proscenium was
widened elliminating two of the
columns.
for film shows, with the
first screening taking
place in 1909. From
around 1927 until World
War II, J Saunders of
Yeovil showed films here,
although the frequency
and subject is not known.
Alexandra ~ Hippodrome
the First World War when it had a mixed programme of films and live shows. The Old Dixton Road is now a
road to nowhere and the theatre is believed demolished.
