St_Austell

The Town Hall and Market opened in
1844 costing £7000. The building
features a vaulted entrance hall and
grand staircase. A market hall is still
housed on the ground floor. The hall
upstairs could seat 400 people and was
converted into the Picturedrome by
Cornish Picturedrome Co. Ltd opening
on 12th October 1910 and passing into
the control of West of England Cinemas
Ltd by 1911 run by Mr Burrows.

The Savoy Theatre operated from the former Assembly Rooms of
1846 designed by Silvanus Trevail, who designed many buildings in
St Austell. Positioned between Fore Street and Truro Road, on
the edge of the town centre. It was Harry J Watkins who would
build the Capitol Theatre, who opened the Savoy in the 1920s
with 385 seats. The proscenium was 25' wide and survived the
opening of two purpose built cinemas in the town, closing on 5th
February 1940.

Built and operated by H arry J Watkins who also operated the
Savoy, this cinema was literally out of town, being situated at 115
Alexandra Road beyond the Mount Charles district of the town.
It is a large building that opened 22nd April 1929 with a car park,
ballroom, cafe, lounge and a row of shops. The opening film was
Sorrell & Son.

It seated 646 in the auditorium with 14 in boxes. The proscenium was 36' wide, the stage 40' deep and
equipped with 6 dressing rooms. Pantomime and other live shows took place on stage. Western Electric
sound was installed and ownership was passed in 1945 to Capitol (St Austell) Ltd. Later CinemaScope was
fitted but curiously the proscenium width after the war is noted as only 25' and part time bingo introduced.

The cinema was purchased by WTW Cinemas along with the Classic in town and continued to operate as a
cinema while the Classic was converted into the Film Centre when it closed for bingo which it continues to
provide today. It is likely the facade we see today is not original, and may have been added when the
Odeon arrived to give the cinema a new look. It is nice to see an original canopy surviving in such
unaltered state.

Mr Watkins daughter Barbara would help out at the cinema and she was in the projection box one evening
during the war when a bomb exploded opposite the cinema. The explosion shattered the windows on the
front of the cinema and Barbara rushed down to see what had happened. She found a soldier staggering
about holding a handkerchief to his head, she feared the worst but it contained the soldiers glass eye,
forced out by the concussion from the explosion.

The Odeon was built in the heart of the town, with 1,274 seats,
806 stalls, 468 balcony. Its address was Chandos Place and
opened 11th July 1936 with Jack of All Trades. Oscar Deutsch
was present at the opening. The contractors were a local firm
called John Williams Ltd, the cost of construction £24,250.
Designed by Harry Weedon, assisted by P J Price, unlike Falmouth
Odeon there was no Faience on this facade. Instead the exterior
mortar was painted light colours. However the tall corner tower
feature kept the Odeon style alive, even if only in its straight
lines (there are no curves). The tower has its own fin rising up
the left side, and continues into the air above the top of the
tower. Apart from a lighting feature over the entrance the
building was very plain and there were no windows.

Passed to Classic Classic Cinemas Ltd on 10th December 1967 the
cinema continued to operate as a single screen operation until
sold to David Williams of WTW Cinemas in 1977. He tripled the
auditorium, screen 1, former stalls, screens 2 and 3 in the old
balcony reopening th cinema as the Film Centre on 16 April 1981.
In 1991 the rear stalls were converted into 2 extra screens.
Screen 1: front stalls, 274 seats, Dolby Digital. Screen 2: 125
seats, screen 3: 139 seats, both balcony. Screen 4 and 5: both
rear stalls with 70 seats each. All screens with Dolby SR. A bar
has now been added to the foyer which has a high ceiling.

A very poor 1970s shopping centre and multi-storey car park now
surround the cinema and the exterior has been clad in metal
sheets. The shopping centre is to be demolished in a major
rebuilding scheme for St Austell. Unfortunately the Film Centre
has also been bought for demolition as part of the scheme.
There are plans for a new cinema to replace the Film Centre in
the new development, but is unlikely to be as large as the
existing cinema.

As with the old arts centre the main programme here was art cinema,
with a wide range of films shown. The building is located in High Cross
Street, the old head office of West of England China Clay Co. Restormel
Arts moved their film shows to the Film Centre, with the rest of the arts
programme relocated elsewhere. However the film shows at the Film
Centre have ceased.

St Austell's original arts centre was situated in Truro Road, and was a
wooden hut. Its seats, sound system and projectors (Gaumont British
Kalee's x3) came in 1960 from the closed Glyn Cinema, Lostwithiel. Film
shows ceased around the mid-1980s.

Since then the building has been used as a theatre by the St Austell
Players, and more information can be found at their website
www.staps.co.uk. It is hoped that films may once again return to the
building once the Film Centre closes for redevelopment.