Devon Cinema Gazetteer

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TOPSHAM

Cosy

The delightful port of Topsham is an excellent place to visit, a little outside of Exeter.  At the bottom end of town up a narrow lane called  Chapel Place is the former cinema called The Cosy. The building, originally a chapel was converted into the Victory Hall and became a cinema in the early 1920s.  The cinema was run by H C Gould.  The films were silent and the cinema closed about 1928.  The building has subsequently been a glove factory and is now a house.

Tivoli ~ Matthews Hall

With the opening of a new hall in Fore Street in 1927, Mr Gould moved his projectors from the Victory Hall and started showing films here.  It is very likely Mr Gould was behind the building off the new hall as H Gould & Son Ltd were the contractors on the building and was clearly designed with cinema in mind. The architects were Boddy & Dempster. There is a foyer with corner pay box and panelling leading to    the hall which has a flat floor with 16' deep stage, 2 dressing rooms and a very fine proscenium arch 25' wide.  A projection box was included.  The cinema operation would have been part time.  There was seating for 300. Mr Gould installed Morrison sound in 1931, the first sound film being Palmy Days.  In the late 1930s the operation was run by A G Curtis.  After the war the company Topsham Entertainments was formed to operate the cinema and the cinema was given the name Tivoli, with a British Thompson Houston sound system. From the mid 1950s until cinema shows ceased around 1960 the operation was run by Wing Commander A R Buere and a wide screen was installed 15'6" by 11'6".  The Matthews Hall still provides the centre for entertainment and social events in the town.

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