Below is a list of cinemas and theatres in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area. Most are long gone, but a small number are still active and pulling in audiences to this day.
Bournemouth
The Shelley Theatre – Shelley Manor, Beechwood Avenue, Boscombe, Bournemouth
Boscombe Manor (Photograph flickr.com).
In 1848, Sir Percy Florence Shelley, the son of the writer and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, bought and redeveloped Boscombe Cottage, renaming it Boscombe Manor. The house was situated in a densely-wooded estate extending from Christchurch Road to the cliff top. Sir Percy acquired the property for his mother, who was ailing and had been advised by her doctor that the temperate climate and sea air of Bournemouth would improve her health. Unfortunately, Mary succumbed to her illness before the work was completed, prompting Sir Percy and his wife, Lady Jane (nee Gibson) Shelley, to take up residence instead.
Where R. L. Stevenson’s house, Skerryvore, once stood in Alum Chine Road (Photograph John Cherry).
Sir Percy, an enthusiastic theatre-goer, oversaw the construction of a two private two hundred capacity theatre inside Boscombe Manor in 1866. The Shelleys invited friends to rehearse plays and hold public performances in the three hundred capacity venue, with funds raised on ticket sales going towards health facilities in the Boscombe area. Regular guests at the theatre included the celebrated actor Sir Henry Irving and the Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson lived in the house ‘Skerryvore’ at 61 Alum Chine Road in Westbourne from April 1885 to August 1887, where he wrote some of his most famous books including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped. The house was hit by a stray bomb in November 1940 and was subsequently demolished. The site was turned into gardens by the Bournemouth Borough Council in 1954.
The Shelley Family Tomb in St. Peter’s churchyard (Photographs John Cherry).
Sir Percy died on 5th December 1889 and was buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard in the centre of Bournemouth. The family vault is also the resting place of his wife Jane, his grandparents, William Godwin, a political theorist and writer, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, an advocate for women’s rights and also a writer, his mother Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelly, the author of the gothic horror novel Frankenstein and the heart of his father Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy drowned in a boating accident in Italy and was cremated on the beach in Viareggio. His heart survived the fire and was retrieved from the ashes, reserved in wine and given to his wife.
Left: blue plaque at St. Peter’s church Right: blue plaque at Shelley Manor (Photographs John Cherry).
Boscombe Manor was bought by Grovely Girls School in 1911 and renamed Grovely Manor. In 1938, it was sold to the council and was utilised as a Home Guard and First Aid Centre during WW2. After the war, it was taken over by the Bournemouth Art and Technical College until 1998. Charles Higgins Ltd. purchased the building in 2005 from Bournemouth Council and redeveloped the site, opening the Shelley Manor Medical Centre.
A local residents group, The Friends of Shelley Manor, saved the theatre from redevelopment and in 2010 staged a performance of Frankenstein by candlelight. Four years later, The Shelley Theatre Trust took over, and it became a popular setting for plays, music recitals, comedy shows, film presentations and pantomimes. When the Imax closed on the seafront, two hundred of the barely used seats were saved by the council and donated to the Shelley Theatre Trust. Unfortunately, like every theatre in the country, it closed in 2020 due to the pandemic and it has remained shut to the public ever since.
Shelley Manor today (Photographs John Cherry & zaubee.com).
Theatre Royal / New Town Hall / Theatre Royal & Opera House / The Services Club / The New Theatre Royal / The New Royal Theatre / Curzon Casino Cinema / The Tatler Cinema Club / The Vogue Bingo Club / The Curzon Casino Sporting Club / Genting Casino – 16 Albert Road, Bournemouth
The Theatre Royal in Albert Road (Photograph pinterest.co.uk).
Opened on 7th December 1882 and built at a cost of £10,000 by the builder W. Stanley, the Theatre Royal situated in Albert Road, was designed by the local architect’s Kemp, Welsh & Pindar, with internal decorations designed by R. T. Sims of London. The theatre was split between two hundred seats in the stalls, four hundred seats in the dress circle, two hundred and fifty seats in the pit, five hundred chairs in the gallery and two private boxes.
Five years after its launch, the theatre doubled as the Town Hall, but it was re-instated solely as an entertainment venue in 1892 and refurbished with fittings from His Majesty’s Theatre in London. It also acquired a new name, the Theatre Royal & Opera House. A large foyer was added in 1909 and the theatre reopened after the building work with a stage production of the musical comedy, The Blue Moon. By 1912, it was screening Bioscope films as a regular part of the programme.
The auditorium and stage (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
During the Second World War, it became the Services Club for military personnel, but suffered fire damage in 1943. After reconstruction, it re-opened in 1949 as the New Theatre Royal and a few years later, it was renamed the New Royal Theatre. Famous people to have performed at the theatre over the years include Oscar Wilde, Frankie Howerd, The D’Oyle Carte Opera Company, Billy Cotton, Tessie O’Shea, the Goons and Morecambe and Wise. With the death of the owner, Will Hammer (of Hammer Films fame), the theatre closed in 1957.
In July 1962, it was converted into a dual-purpose cinema and bingo club and was re-named the Curzon Casino Cinema. Nine years later, the upstairs was converted into a purpose-built cinema called the Tatler Cinema Club and the stalls area became the Vogue Bingo Club. The cinema became infamous for showing soft pornographic films, the first two being Hot Spur and The Tale of The Dean’s Wife. The Tatler Cinema Club closed in 1982 and that part of the building remained un-used until it operated briefly as the Mine nightclub in 2005. The downstairs stalls area was re-named the Curzon Casino Sporting Club.
The blue plaque (Photograph John Cherry).
In 2016, the building was offered for sale, but is still used for gambling purposes under the name the Genting Casino. The entrance is now in Yelverton Road, where the stage door used to be. It is a Grade 2 listed building and there is a blue plaque mounted by the entrance.
The Theatre Royal today; the Genting Casino entrance is now in Yelverton Road (Photographs John Cherry).
The Crystal Palace and Winter Gardens / The Winter Gardens – Exeter Road, Bournemouth
The original glass Crystal Palace and Winter Gardens (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Crystal Palace and Winter Gardens was sited in lush gardens on Exeter Road and was opened on 16th January 1877 by the MP Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. The building housed exhibition space and areas for public entertainments in amongst a huge variety of floral displays. In the early 1890s, the conductor Dan Godfrey assembled the thirty strong Bournemouth Corporation Band that performed on the beach and in the gardens. On 22nd May 1893, the band played its first concert in the Winter Gardens to a sell-out audience. In 1896, Godfrey was appointed general manager of the Winter Gardens and during his tenure, he oversaw a full range of entertainments, including concerts, recitals, lectures and variety shows. Unfortunately, the venue wasn’t looked upon fondly and acquired a number of derogatory names such as ‘The Greenhouse’ and ‘The Cucumber Frame’ because of the copious amount of potted plants strewn about the hall and the noise generated by heavy rain which drowned out the quieter passages of music. The musicians also complained about the odd acoustics as the sound bounced around the glass structure.
The new Winter Gardens (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
In 1929, the Municipal Orchestra moved across the lower gardens to the newly constructed Pavilion and in 1935, the original glass structure was demolished. It was rebuilt using a steel skeleton enclosed with brick and a timber roof at a cost of £30,000 and re-opened on 4th November 1937 as a state-of-the art indoor bowling green.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, it was requisitioned by the Air Ministry and handed over to the Canadian Air Force, who were stationed in the town, and despite bombing by the Luftwaffe, the Winter Gardens emerged from the conflict unscathed. After the hostilities had ceased, the re-named Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra stated that they were unhappy with the acoustic properties of the Pavilion Theatre and having to play second fiddle to stage productions, pantomimes and variety shows. As a remedy, it was agreed that the indoor bowling green would be converted into a concert hall, much to the consternation of the bowling club members.
The auditorium and stage (Photograph Flickr.com).
The council took back control of the building in July 1946 and gave the go-ahead to erect a stage and install eighteen hundred seats. A concert was arranged for the opening night on Saturday 18th October 1947 by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, conducted by their new leader, Rudolf Schwarz. The concert was a huge success and, to the relief of the musicians and Schwarz, the hall’s acoustic qualities were rated second to none. In 1954, the Municipal Orchestra was renamed the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Apart from orchestral recitals, over the years, the hall promoted countless musical concerts, variety shows and summer extravaganzas. It was also utilised as a cinema, a circus, a conference hall and an arena for wrestling and boxing bouts.
By the late fifties, the Winter Gardens became a regular stop-off for package tours hosting stars of the short-lived skiffle craze, British rock ‘n’ rollers and top American musicians. In the early sixties, it was all change as the bills became increasingly stuffed with beat groups riding the Beat Boom, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and later in the decade, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In January 1967, the Gardens had a revamp when the flat floor in the stalls area was raked and the stage was lowered and extended, giving the audience a better line of view. The following decade, the Winter Gardens became a regular stop-off for a whole plethora of rock bands such as Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Queen, Paul McCartney and Wings, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
The auditorium and stage before closure (Photograph Flickr.com).
In 1984, the Winter Gardens closed as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra upped sticks and moved to the purpose-built Poole Arts Centre and the brand-new Bournemouth International Centre came on-line. After much debate and many petitions, the much loved venue was bulldozed in May 2006 to make way for a car park.
(For a more in-depth history of the Winter Gardens, go to the Menu at the top right-hand corner of this page and click on The Winter Gardens).
West’s Pictures / West’s Super Cinema – St. Peter’s Road, Bournemouth
The Shaftsbury Hall on the left in Gervis Road (Photograph Flickr.com).
West’s Cinema Entrance (Photograph Bournemouth History Facebook).
The Shaftsbury Hall and Cairns Memorial Hall in Gervis Road were two large buildings owned by the YMCA. While the Cairns Hall contained reading rooms and dormitories, the Shaftsbury Hall next door could accommodate up to one thousand people for public meetings and lectures. The basement housed a gymnasium fitted with the latest apparatus.
In 1901, an Australian called T. J. West began showing films in an upstairs hall with a capacity for five hundred and twelve patrons. In 1936, the architect C. H. Fowler remodeled the hall into a cinema and increased the seating to accommodate nine hundred and thirty-two people. He also added a cafe.
On Monday 1st June 1936, the cinema re-opened with a double feature, The Days of Pompeii, starring Preston Foster and Joe E. Brown in Funnyface. For the next few years, during peacetime and the outbreak of the Second World War, West’s Super Cinema proved to be a popular destination for film fans. However, on 22nd May 1943, disaster struck. The cinema was bombed in the same German air raid that claimed the Metropole Hotel in the Lansdowne, Beale’s and Bobby’s department stores, the Central Hotel, Punshon Memorial Church and the Shamrock and Rambler garage. The cinema was completely flattened. The film running at the time was The Mortal Storm featuring James Stewart. The cinema was never rebuilt, and the site is now occupied by the Burlington Arcade.
Where West’s Super Cinema stood today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Grand Pavilion Theatre / Boscombe Grand Theatre / Boscombe Hippodrome / Royal Arcade Ballrooms / Starkers / Tiffany’s’ / The Academy / The Opera House / Slinky / O2 Academy – 568–578 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth
The Royal Ballrooms in the 1960s (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Grand Theatre and Pavilion in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, opened on 27th May 1895 and was designed by local architects Lawson and Donkin for the Wiltshire brewer Archibald Beckett. The theatre cost £15,000 and was built on the site of Beckett’s former home after he moved to new premises in Boscombe Spa Road. The auditorium could accommodate two thousand people and from the outset it had a dual-purpose as a theatre and a circus. Beckett relinquished ownership of the Grand Pavilion to Aidra Hall and Robert Ayrton in 1898 after he failed to obtain an alcohol licence, which resulted in the new proprietors renaming the venue the Boscombe Grand Theatre. In 1900, it was all change again as the theatrical impresarios Morell and Mouillot took over and staged operas, revues, silent films and plays starring big stars of the day.
In 1905, a further re-branding to the Boscombe Hippodrome occurred. However, some of the more puritanical residents of Bournemouth deemed the shows immoral and that the theatre lowered the tone of the town. One shop owner was so incensed that the Hippodrome opened on Sundays, that he erected a statue of Old Nick on his roof opposite with the inscription, “The Devil Comes into His Own”. The same shopkeeper would have been horrified at the bawdy American style glamour revues starring comedians and tableaux’s of stationary naked women that were lapped up by the troops stationed in town prior to D-Day.
The auditorium and stage at the turn of the century (Photograph Flickr.com).
At the cessation of hostilities, the owner of the Chine Hotel in Boscombe Spa Road, Frederick Butterworth, bought the premises and persevered with traditional variety shows. In 1955, he closed the theatre for a refit and re-opened the venue in July 1956 as a lavish dance hall called the Royal Arcade Ballrooms under the management of a former Mecca employee, Louis Dooren. Messrs. A. S. Johnson of Boscombe undertook the revamp, which included installing a £1,000 rubber-sprung dance floor and raising the level of the stage.
In 1968, the ballroom was utilized by the local Technical and Arts College for their Valentine’s and Christmas dances and during the early seventies, the promoter Mel Bush brought a number of top bands to the venue including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart and the Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo, Deep Purple, Canned Heat and David Bowie.
The regular live music nights ended when Butterworth leased the ballrooms to Mecca in December 1972, who turned the venue into a discothèque and occasional live venue called Tiffany’s. Later, it was taken over by Rank. In 1982, it became the Academy and then in 1997 the Opera House. In the nineties, dance DJ’s took over, as trance and house music became de rigueur and the club operated under the Slinky brand until Frederick’s son, John Butterworth, took back the lease in 2006 with a plan to revert the ballrooms back to a theatre and live music venue.
The Grade 2 listed building closed in 2007 for a £3.5 million refurbishment that included reinstating the upper balcony that had been closed for years and restoring the ornate Victorian plaster work. In September 2009, it reopened under the auspices of the O2 franchise.
(For a more in-depth history of the Royal Ballrooms, go to the Menu at the top right-hand corner of this page and click on The Royal Ballrooms).
The Royal Ballrooms today (Photographs John Cherry).
The Empire Electric Theatre – Bourne Avenue, The Square, Bournemouth
The Empire Electric Theatre in Bourne Avenue (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Empire Electric Theatre was part of a parade of low-level buildings in Bourne Avenue, just off the square and in the shadow of St. Andrews church. Very little is known about this cinema, apart from it being a going concern in the early part of the twentieth century until approximately 1910. Bioscope shows were shown on a regular basis, plus locally made films of carnivals, fetes and parades. There was a three tier admission fee of two shillings, one shilling and sixpence at the rear, with children half price.
Site of the Empire Electric today (Photograph John Cherry).
Westover Palace Skating Rink and Tea Gardens / The Westover Cinema, Dance Palace and Tea Gardens – 8 / 9 Westover Road, Bournemouth
The Westover Cinema, Dance Palace and Tea Gardens (Photograph Flickr.com).
Westover Villas, a mix of sixteen semi-detached and detached villas, apartments and boarding houses, were built on Westover Road in the 1830s by Sir George Gervis. In 1910, a number of the villas were replaced by the Westover Palace Skating Rink and Tea Gardens. The skating in question was of the roller variety and not ice skating. As moving pictures became more popular, the building was modernised and became the Westover Cinema, Dance Palace and Tea Gardens.
A pleasant afternoon listening to the band (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Westover Palace became a ballroom in the thirties called the Barbecue. One of the bands that played there, was directed by a young musician called Mantovani, who would go on to international fame with his orchestra. In the forties, the building was taken over by Fortes, who opened a restaurant, but kept the ballroom going with a programme of famous visiting bands including the Henry Hall and Joe Loss orchestras. The site is now home to the Brass Haus pub.
The site today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Electric Cinema – 35 / 41 Commercial Road, Bournemouth
The Electric Cinema in Commercial Road (Photograph Flickr.com).
In July 1910, two existing premises on Commercial Road were converted into the Electric Theatre by the Popular Bioscope Syndicate of London. As moving pictures grew in popularity, the building was demolished and a new Electric Theatre was erected by the building company, Alexander Bernstein. The new cinema opened on 22nd December 1921 with seating for one thousand four hundred divided between stalls and a balcony, a lounge, a smoking room and a roof tea garden for use in the summer months. Initially, a fifteen-piece orchestra under the musical direction of R. A. Laidlaw accompanied the silent films, but by 1922 a Norman & Beard organ was installed. Organ recitals became a regular occurrence up until 1954, when the instrument was taken out of commission due to woodworm.
The theatre underwent modifications in July 1930, to the designs of architect Cecil Masey, but it eventually closed on 2nd March 1966 with a showing of the comic western The Hallelujah Trail starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick.
The Electric was demolished and replaced by retail outlets. For many years, the new building was occupied by Marks & Spencer’s, but it has been vacant since April 2018 when M&S moved to new premises in the Castlepoint shopping mall. The building is still awaiting a new tenant.
The site of the Electric Cinema today (John Cherry).
Coronation Picture Palace / The Roxy / The Roxy Bingo and Social Club – 311 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth
The Roxy Cinema in Holdenhurst Road (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Coronation Picture Palace in Holdenhurst Road, opened on 27th June 1911 with a capacity for seven hundred and fifty patrons. As well as showing films, the cinema doubled as a theatre and employed a small orchestra. In 1928, it was equipped with an organ manufactured by Bedwell & Son, but was removed after six months as it was damaged by a rat infestation.
The Coronation was re-named the Roxy Cinema in 1936 and was operated by the Harry Mears chain from 1940. Mears was well known in the town, as he was elected mayor of Bournemouth three times and also served as an alderman. The cinema closed in April 1944 after receiving severe bomb damage during a German air raid. Unfortunately, at the time, the cinema was owned by T. J. West, whose own West Super Cinema in Gervis Road was bombed the year before. It remained closed until 9th March 1950, when it reopened with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in Blue Skies and Charlie Ruggles in Night Work.
The Roxy Cinema finally closed on 25th August 1963 with Hardy Kruger and Stanley Baxter, starring in the thriller Blind Date. It was converted into the Roxy Bingo and Social Club, which closed in 1994. The building is still intact and is occupied by a photography studio.
The Roxy Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
Winton Hall / Electric Palace Cinema / The Plaza / The Continental – 303 / 305 Wimborne Road, Winton, Bournemouth
The Winton Hall built in 1908 (Photograph cinematreasures.org).
The Continental Cinema at Winton Banks (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The Continental at the Winton banks on the corner of Wimborne Road and Alma Road, started life in 1908 as the Winton Assembly Hall designed by the architect Frederick Fogarty. Initially, it was used as a theatre and famously hosted Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Circus Show in 1903. In 1911, the theatre screened its first film and the next year it was renamed the Winton Electric Palace Cinema. In 1928 it was rechristened the rather cumbersome New and Popular Palace – Winton’s Superior Cinema, but was renamed the concise Plaza Cinema the following year.
In 1929, the cinema was bought by Harry Mears and was refurbished with modern projectors and a new generator in the basement overseen by William Friese-Green, one of the pioneers of British cinema. The Plaza became one of the first cinemas in Bournemouth to show talking pictures. Refurbished in 1953, it was re-launched as the Continental on the 6th April and became notorious for screening soft core porn films and was known locally as the ‘flea pit’. The cinema changed hands yet again in 1978, but it had become increasingly rundown. The Continental closed on 8th June 1989, with a screening of Mike Leigh’s comedy-drama, High Hopes. It was eventually demolished and was replaced by the Hop and Kilderkin pub. The site is now occupied by the Buffalo Bar.
The site of the Continental today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Picture House / The Savoy Cinema – 599 / 607 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth
The Picture House, Boscombe in 1914 (Photograph cinematreasusers.org).
The seven hundred and sixty capacity Picture House in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, opened on Monday January 19th 1914 with the silent films Between Man and Beast starring Bessie Eyton and Wheeler Oakman and Tom Moore and Clara Blandick in His Inspiration. The cinema closed for refurbishment in early 1930, reopening as the Savoy Cinema on 14th July, with Eric Von Stroheim and Betty Compson in The Great Gabbo and Olive Horden in Clipped Wings. A month later, the auditorium and roof were destroyed in a fire, although the frontage was left undamaged. It reopened on 26th December 1930, with Harold Lloyd in Welcome Danger plus A Holiday in Storyland, an early vehicle for Judy Garland.
The Savoy being demolished in 1958 (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
In 1937, it was taken over by Lou Morris, and then various different operators, until its uninterrupted run came to an end on the 27th September 1958 with a double bill consisting of Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels in a big screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold and Arthur Franz and Kathleen Crowley in the Sci-Fi B movie The Flame Barrier. The building was demolished and replaced by a Fine Fare supermarket. It is currently a Primark store.
The Savoy today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Palladium / The Embassy / The Classic Cinema – 172 Seabourne Road, Southbourne, Bournemouth
The Picture House, Southbourne in 1914 (Photographs cinematreasusers.org).
The independently owned Palladium Cinema in Seaborne Road, Southbourne, opened on 6th October 1919 with a capacity of five hundred and fifty. The proprietor was a Mr. J. Newbury and a small orchestra was directed by Mr. T. Denny. The inaugural programme consisted of a double bill of silent films, The Ordeal of Rosetta featuring Alice Brady and Crauford Kent plus the short Officer Jerry, starring George Ovey. In the 1930s, it was taken over by the Portsmouth Town Cinemas and later it became part of the portfolio of cinemas owned by the Harry Mears chain.
The cinema closed for refurbishment after the war and reopened on 1st July 1948 with a new name, the Embassy Cinema. In 1954, the Embassy Cinema closed for further renovations and a another name change when it reopened on Easter Monday as the Classic Cinema with Alexander Korda’s 1933 period piece, The Private Life of Henry VIII, starring Charles Laughton, Merle Oberon and Robert Donat.
The cinema closed for the final time on 30th September 1960 with the whodunnit Town On Trial starring John Mills and Barbara Bates and Dan Duryea in The Burglar. The building was demolished and replaced with a Co-op supermarket.
The site of the Classic cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Grand / The Grand Super Cinema / The Grand Bingo Hall – Grand Cinema Buildings, Poole Road, Westbourne, Bournemouth
The Grand in Westbourne (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The one thousand capacity Grand Cinema Theatre in Westbourne, opened on 18th December 1922 with a stage production of Anthony and Cleopatra. The following day it screened its first silent film, A Prince of Lovers starring Howard Gaye, Marjorie Hume and Mary Clare, plus a Harold Lloyd comedy short. Unusually for a theatre cum cinema, it had a sliding roof that could be retracted in the summer months and a lift, as well as stairs, that would take patrons to the balcony and café. The Grand was also said to have the finest cinema orchestra in Bournemouth, which accompanied the silent films. The Grand started life as an independent, but was taken over by Savoy Cinemas and became part of the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) chain. Between May 1933 and 1935, it was leased to Regent Cinemas, but then reverted back to ABC control and re-named the Grand Super Cinema.
The cinema was taken over by the independent Snape Entertainments on 21st December 1953 and live stage productions were dropped in favour of film screenings. Saturday morning matinees for the local children became popular during the fifties and sixties, showing a programme of serials, westerns and cartoons, plus singalongs accompanied by a chap on an accordion. On 8th October 1975, the film They Love Sex was the last regular film shown. From then on it became a full-time bingo club until a mix of bingo and films was introduced on 27th March 1976.
The Grand was featured in Ken Russell’s 1977 biopic Valentino, when it doubled as a New York cinema where Felicity Kendal’s character, June Mathis, a movie executive and screenwriter, viewed a Valentino film on the screen. Other local locations used in the film included the driveway at St. Ann’s Hospital in Canford Cliffs and the interior of Russell Cotes Museum, which doubled as Valentino’s Hollywood home.
The Russell Cotes Museum (Photograph John Cherry).
The Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev starredin the film as the silent movie star Rudolph Valentino along with his co-stars Leslie Caron, who plays his lover, and Michelle Phillips, of the Mamas and Pappas, who plays his second wife. Apparently, Phillips had family ties to the area. Filming was arduous with Russell, Phillips and Nureyev continually butting heads during production. The three protagonists clashed over the Russian dancer’s inflated ego and strict discipline, Phillip’s casual approach to acting and director Russell’s meticulous vision. On release, the film was a critical and financial flop and later Russell stated he would rather forget making it.
The Grand Cinema screened its last film; an adult movie called In Love With Sex, on 8th October 1977, but remained a Bingo hall under the auspices of the Bartlam family until its closure in December 2017. The Grand is still standing, but boarded up and in a sorry state. It cannot be demolished as it is a Grade 2 listed building.
The Grand today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Victoria / The Ritz – 694 Wimborne Road, Victoria Parade, Moordown, Bournemouth
The Ritz Cinema in Moordown (Photograph cinematreasusers.org).
The seven hundred capacity Victoria in Moordown, opened on 22nd January 1927 as a silent picture house designed by Edward de Wilde Holding, the same architect who would design the Moderne cinema in Moordown eight years later. The first film to be shown was Norman Kerry and Greta Nissen in The Love Thief. To keep up with the times, the cinema was converted to sound a year later.
In 1937, the Victoria was refurbished and taken over by Portsmouth Town Cinemas, but at the outbreak of war, it was requisitioned and converted into an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) store. It was released by the MoD in 1948 and underwent modernization. In 1950, it reopened with a new name, the Ritz. The first film to be shown on its new silver screen was the comedy Tony Draws a Horse starring Derek Bond. During the fifties, the cinema staged talent nights for locals to air their singing, dancing and comedic skills. ‘Starlight Nights’ were also popular, featuring local talent.
The Ritz closed in 1959. The final week was called ‘The Ritz Repertory Week’, featuring a selection of horror films starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney. The week culminated in the Benny Hill comedy Whodunnit. Benny coincidentally moved to Winton in September 1939, after being evacuated from Southampton at the outbreak of war. He attended Bournemouth School for Boys in West Way, but left at Christmas and returned to Southampton, where he worked as a milkman (hence the song “Ernie”) and at Woolworths before his call up in 1942. The Ritz auditorium was demolished, but the façade is still in place and the old foyer is now a shop.
The Ritz today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Pavilion Theatre – Westover Road, Bournemouth
The Pavilion Theatre (Photograph Flickr.com).
Opened on Saturday 19th March 1929 by the Duke of Gloucester, the Pavilion in Westover Road was designed by the architects G. Wyville Home and Shirley Knight of London. After the plans were submitted, the building company James and Seward were commissioned to erect the new facility at a cost of £250,000. The complex housed a one thousand, five hundred and sixty two seat concert hall specifically built for the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, a tearoom with a sprung dance floor (now known as the ballroom) the large Ocean Room restaurant on the ground floor and the smaller Lucullus French Restaurant on the first floor and two small tea lounges either side of the auditorium. A Compton Theatre Organ was also installed.
The Pavilion auditorium (Photograph John Cherry).
From 1932 onwards, after the two tea lounges were removed to make way for an expanded backstage area, the theatre staged plays, operas, ballets, musicals, variety shows, pantomimes, recitals on the Compton organ and classical performances by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra. A list of the stars that have appeared at the theatre include: James Mason, Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde, Marlene Dietrich, John Gielgud, Stewart Granger, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Shirley Bassey, Lyn Redgrave, Richard Attenborough, Michael Caine, Terence Stamp, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Max Wall, Ken Dodd, Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, the cast of Dads Army, Phil Silvers, Dame Edna Everage, Norman Wisdom and Sergei Rachmaninov.
The Pavilion Ballroom (Photographs John Cherry).
At the rear of the building is one of the largest ballrooms in the south of England. Over the years, it has hosted gala dinners, boxing and wrestling bouts, exhibitions, charity dances, work dos, conferences, afternoon tea dances, record fairs and rock gigs.
Throughout its history, the Pavilion has had its difficulties with threats of imminent closure hanging over the much loved venue. Firstly, in 1956 and again in 1961, the council inaugurated feasibility studies, but nothing came of them. Then, in 1965 and 1974, the idea was floated that the theatre and ballroom should become a conference centre, and by 1978 it was earmarked to become the site for what would eventually become the Bournemouth International Centre. However, that plan never came to fruition, and the BIC was built on the west cliff. On more than one occasion, the council suggested it could be converted into a shopping arcade and in 1983 it nearly closed its doors for good because of financial difficulties. But in 1998, English Heritage took the decision away from the council and designated the Pavilion a Grade Two listed building. Now it is operated by the charitable trust BH Live and its future has been secured.
(For a more in-depth history of the Pavilion, go to the Menu at the top right-hand corner of this page and click on The Pavilion).
The Pavilion frontage today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Regent / The Gaumont / Odeon Theatre – 37-43 Westover Road, Bournemouth
The Regent cinema, theatre and restaurant shortly after opening in 1929 (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The flagship Regent theatre and cinema in Westover Road, was built for the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres chain and was designed by William Edward Trent, with assistance from local architectural firm Seal & Hardy. The opening ceremony on Monday 13th May 1929 was performed by the Mayor of Bournemouth, Alderman C. H. Cartwright. The theatre was the largest venue in town, with two thousand three hundred seats spread over raked stalls and a balcony. A large foyer paved with black-and-white marble made way to a broad marble staircases that lead to the auditorium which was crowned with an eighty-foot diameter copper domed ceiling. The walls of the auditorium were decorated with hand-painted panels in an Italian Renaissance style by the artist Frank Barnes. Smaller staircases on either side of the main staircase ascended to the balcony and a spacious restaurant that could seat up to three hundred diners. The large stage was fully equipped with theatrical facilities and an orchestra pit housed a Wurlitzer organ that could be raised to stage level.
View of the auditorium, stalls and orchestra pit with Wurlitzer theatre organ (Photograph Flickr.com).
The first night was a glitzy affair featuring a screening of the silent film Two Lovers starring Ronald Coleman and Vilma Banky, a recital by Reginald Foort on the Wurlitzer theatre organ, a musical interlude by the Regent Orchestra conducted by Mr. T. S. Clarke-Browne and a variety show, Something Different, featuring the Regent Girls, a nine strong dance troupe, Graham and Douglas, a pair of simultaneous dancers and the soprano Nan Foster. During the Second World War, there were late night presentations for the servicemen in town and the cinema was also used to screen instructional films in the build-up to D-Day.
The renamed Gaumont cinema and theatre in Westover Road (Photograph Robert Jessopp).
Renamed the Gaumont on 22nd August 1949, it staged numerous plays produced by its own theatre group and presented a series of jazz concerts starring the top jazz musicians in the country. During the sixties, the theatre hosted a number of pop package tours that saw the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, The Kinks, Van Morrison’s Them, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Tom Jones, The Byrds, The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and Little Richard playing to sold out audiences.
The theatre brought the curtain down for the final time on 16th November 1968, as it closed for a complete modernisation and reopened on 15th July the following year as a twin screened cinema under the management of George Gibson.
The larger space downstairs became Screen I and the balcony was converted into the smaller screen 2. The Gaumont was renamed the Odeon by the Rank Organisation on 30th October 1986, and Screen 2 was sub-divided into four screens in June 1989. In February 1995, the former terrace bar was converted into the small one hundred and forty capacity screen 6. The Odeon finally closed its doors for good on Thursday 9th February 2017 with a screening of La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The building remains empty and boarded up, awaiting a building company to develop the site.
(For a more in-depth history of the Gaumont, go to the Menu at the top right-hand corner of this page and click on The Gaumont).
The Odeon pictured shortly before its closure in February 2017 (Photograph John Cherry)
The Little Theatre / The Palace Court Theatre / The Playhouse Theatre and Galaxy Cinema – Hinton Road, Bournemouth
The Palace Court Theatre / Galaxy Cinema / Playhouse Theatre (Photograph theatrestrust.org.uk).
The Little Theatre tucked away in Hinton Road, was designed in an Art Deco style by the architectural firm Seal & Hardy who also designed the Daily Echo building on Richmond Hill, the Westover Ice Rink and the Palace Court Hotel. Opened in June 1931, the five hundred and sixty-five seat auditorium was built specifically for Bournemouth Little Theatre Limited, an amateur drama company. The theatre was situated in Hinton Road, hidden away from the bustling Westover Road making it hard to find. Consequently, it was renamed the Palace Court Theatre as it was adjoined to the much larger Palace Court Hotel, which helped raise its profile. For many years, the theatre was the focal point for local drama and professional productions, but by the 1960s, rising costs and the growth of the television meant that the company could no longer afford to run the premises. In 1971, it was sold for £60,000 to Louis I. Michaels’ LM Theatres and the Little Theatre Club moved to new premises in Jameson Road, Winton.
The new owners converted the former Green Room on the lower ground floor into the two hundred capacity Galaxy Cinema, whilst the main five hundred and ninety-five seated auditorium was re-named the Playhouse Theatre. It operated as a repertory theatre, but dwindling attendances for live stage shows necessitated the owners to double the Playhouse as a cinema to raise much needed funds. In 1983, the Playhouse staged its first live show in years, when the national tour of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat scored a successful run. However, the theatre closed during the summer months, as securing first-run films for both venues was proving difficult.
The Palace Court Theatre auditorium today (Photograph aub.co.uk).
On the death of Louis I. Michaels in 1986, the theatre was sold for £182,000 to the Assemblies of God for use as the Wessex Christian Theatre. The sale stipulated that the layout of the theatre could not be altered, meaning that the five hundred and ninety-five seated theatre remained virtually intact whilst the Galaxy cinema was converted into a lecture room and a kitchen was fitted into the former projection room. In April 2021, the building was purchased by the Arts University Bournemouth, who had plans to restore the theatre to its former glory as a fully functioning performance venue with a bar and rehearsal space.
The Palace Court Theatre today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Carlton / ABC Carlton – 677 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth
The Carlton Cinema in Boscombe (Photograph unknown).
Designed by architects Reynolds & Tomlin in an Oriental Chinese style, the Carlton in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, was built by an independent company, but was taken over on completion by Associated British Cinemas (ABC). It opened on 27th July 1931 with Once a Sinner starring Dorothy Mackaill and George O’Brien in Fair Warning. In early-April 1971, it closed for a re-furbishment and re-opened on 29th April 1971 as the ABC Carlton with Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii.
The cinema closed on 10th July 1974 with a screening of The Dove starring Joseph Bottoms. The building was taken over by Ladbrokes, the gambling company, who operated the Lucky 7 Bingo Club until its closure in 1988. The auditorium was demolished in 2002. The foyer is still standing and occupied by the Mello Mello bar.
The Carlton; the lobby was where the Mello Mello Bar is today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Astoria – 861 Christchurch Road, Pokesdown, Bournemouth
The Astoria Cinema in Pokesdown (cinematreasures.org).
The Astoria in Pokesdown, was run by Frank Okin Cinemas Ltd. and was equipped with a Compton theatre organ and one thousand, five hundred seats. The cinema opened on 24th October 1932 with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable in Hell Divers plus the comedy short One Good Turn starringLaurel & Hardy.
By the time the cinema closed, it was operated by the Harry Mears chain. The last films to be screened on the 23rd May 1964 were Valley of the Kings starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker and the British comedy film Private’s Progress, starring Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Terry Thomas and Ian Carmichael. After its closure, the cinema was converted into a Mecca Bingo Club and then by an independent as the Astoria Bingo Club. The auditorium was demolished in 1997, but the Façade is still visible and the foyer has been converted into a private dwelling.
The Astoria today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Moderne – 713 Wimborne Road, Moordown, Bournemouth
The Moderne Cinema in Moordown (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
Designed by local architect Edward G. de Wilde Holding in an Art Deco style, the Moderne in Moordown seated one thousand five hundred film fans and included a café in the balcony foyer, plus an ice cream parlour. The state-of-the-art cinema was one of the first in Bournemouth to install Cinemascope with a four track stereo sound system and an Ardente deaf-aid system. The Cinema was opened on 11th October 1935 by one of Moordown’s oldest residents, Councillor Mrs. A. Tiller. The first screenings were Music in the Air, starring Gloria Swanson and John Boles and Denis O’Neil in Barnacle Bill. O’Neil appeared live on stage throughout the first week.
In 1937, the Moderne was purchased by Portsmouth Town Cinemas who also owned the Ritz cinema, situated five hundred yards away on the opposite side of Wimborne Road. During the fifties, it became a popular venue for skiffle competitions and on Saturday mornings, a matinee for the local kids would often feature a skiffle group performing in the intermission.
The view from the balcony (Photograph Robert Jessopp).
The Moderne auditorium (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Moderne closed on 25th May 1963 with Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins in Wrong Arm of the Law. It reopened a month later, after a refit, as a bingo hall on 8th June with a guest appearance from Coronation Street’s Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix). Over the years it was operated by Granada and then the Gala group, but in February 2008, the doors closed on the bingo hall for the last time. An application submitted to English Heritage to protect the Moderne by granting it a listed building status was rejected that summer, as some of the original decorative features had been removed. It has since been renovated sympathetically by the Bournemouth Community Church who occasionally use the building for what it had first been intended, a cinema.
(For a more in-depth history of the Moderne go to the Menu at the top right-hand corner of this page and look click on The Moderne).
The Moderne today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Premier News Theatre / The Premier Cinema – 2 Albert Road, Bournemouth
The tiny Premier News Theatre on the corner of Albert Road and Adelaide Lane opened in 1936 with a seating capacity of one hundred and twenty-five. Initially, the cinema only screened short newsreels, cartoons and travelogues, but over the years it proved to be popular and was enlarged to seat three hundred and twelve patrons. The alterations were designed by the Bournemouth based architect Edward G. de Wilde Holding.
In 1965, it was re-named the Premier Cinema and began screening feature films with a reduced seating capacity of two hundred and forty. It closed on 19th September 1973 with the classic action thriller, The French Connection starring Gene Hackman. The site is now occupied by an ice cream parlour.
The Premier Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Westover Super Cinema / ABC / Cannon / MGM / Westover Cinema – 27 Westover Road, Bournemouth
The Westover Super Cinema in Westover Road (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The Westover Super Cinema in Westover Road, was built for the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) and was designed by the architect William Riddle Glen. It opened on 19th June 1937 with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the musical comedy Shall We Dance. It was designed in an Art Deco style with seating for one thousand six hundred and five patrons in the stalls and nine hundred and ten in the circle. The cinema was equipped with a Compton organ and there was also a restaurant and a café in the balcony area. In 1951, two films had their British premieres at the ABC, firstly the musical Happy Go Lucky starring David Niven, Vera Ellen and Cesar Romero followed by the American romantic musical Showboat with Howard Keel, Ava Gardner and Kathryn Grayson. Seven years later, the cinema was re-branded the ABC.
On 24th September 1969, the ABC closed its doors for nine months as work was undertaken to split the cinema into two separate screens. It reopened on 13th June 1970, with the former balcony becoming ABC 1 with a capacity of six hundred and forty-four seats and the former stalls becoming ABC 2 with a capacity of nine hundred and eighty-two seats. The first films to be screened were Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg in Paint Your Wagon and the British comedy All the Way Up starring Warren Mitchell, Richard Briers, Pat Heywood and Adrienne Posta.
The original auditorium and Compton organ (Photograph dailymail.co.uk).
The ABC 2 screen closed during January 1973 and was divided into two, forming a new ABC three screen cinema. They re-opened on 19th April 1973 with seating for five hundred and eighty-seven in Screen 2 and two hundred and twenty-three in Screen 3. In 1983, the ABC was taken over by the Cannon Group and re-named the Cannon and in May 1992; it was taken over again and was re-branded the MGM.
The ABC Cinema (Photograph bbc.co.uk)
In 1996, a management buy-out was completed, and the name reverted back to the ABC, but four years later it came under the control of Odeon Theatres, who also operated the nearby Gaumont, which had been re-branded the Odeon. The ABC finally closed on 4th January 2017 with a screening of the family favourite, Back to the Future. The building is now boarded up, awaiting a buyer.
The ABC today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Odeon Cinema – 10 Christchurch Road, Lansdowne, Bournemouth
The Odeon Lansdowne (Photograph facebook.com).
The Odeon Bournemouth at the Lansdowne, was built for the Odeon Theatres Ltd. Chain. It was opened on 7th August 1937 by the Earl of Malmesbury with music provided by the Royal Marines Band and a screening of the Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur and Leo Carrillo romantic comedy History Is Made at Night. The auditorium was decorated in an Art Deco with a capacity for one thousand three hundred and thirty-six in the stalls and six hundred and forty-two in the circle. There was also a café and a free car park at the rear. During the war, the Odeon suffered bomb damage when shrapnel from a German device pierced the rear wall and destroyed the stage area, ripped the screen and demolished some of the stalls.
The auditorium (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
Throughout the fifties and sixties the cinema flourished, and in 1965, the musical The Sound of Music ran non-stop for an astonishing fifty plus weeks. But, unfortunately, with the advent of television, declining audience numbers forced the Odeon to close on 16th January 1974 with Linda Marlowe, Gary Hope and Sean Hewitt in the British action film Big Zapper and The Conspiracy, a propaganda film about the communists and secret police in Romania.
It was converted into a Top Rank Bingo Club, which then became a Granada Bingo Club, then the Gala Bingo Club and finally, from June 2018, the Buzz Bingo Club. It was closed on 21st March 2020 due to the pandemic and on 15th July 2020 it was announced that the closure would be permanent. The building now stands empty and boarded up.
The Odeon today standing empty (Photograph John Cherry).
The Pier Theatre – Bournemouth Pier
The Pier Theatre (Photograph wikipedia.org).
On 2nd August 1856, the first one hundred foot wooden jetty was unveiled on Bournemouth seafront. It was later replaced and extended in 1861 with a one thousand foot pier designed by George Rennie at a cost of £3,418. In 1876, a storm washed away most of the pier and a temporary structure was constructed the following year. A permanent eight hundred and thirty-eight foot pier was designed by Eugenius Birch and built in 1878 at a cost of £21,600. It was officially opened on 11th August 1880 by the Lord Mayor of London. A new landing for steamships was added in 1905, extending the length to one thousand feet. During the Second World War, the pier was breached as an anti-invasion measure, but was repaired in 1946.
The Pier Theatre (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
In 1960, a concrete substructure was constructed to carry the weight of a eight hundred seat theatre designed to look like an ocean liner by Elisabeth Scott who worked for the Bournemouth Borough Architect’s office. End of the pier shows was a tradition that went hand in hand with seaside holidays along with Punch and Judy, sticks of rock and Kiss Me Quick hats. Hasting had been hosting entertainment at the end of their pier since 1872, but Bournemouth was rather late to the party when the Pier Theatre opened on 3rd June 1960 with the Harold Fielding production of Carry on Laughing starring Ted Rogers.
The auditorium (Photographs database.theatrestrust.org.uk).
Every year, a new show would be booked for the summer months with stars such as Thora Hird appearing in The Best Laid Plans, Sid James in Spring Wedding and Dick Emery starring in a stage production of his TV show Oh! You Are Awful. London West End shows and farces were also popular with The Mating Game, Run For Your Wife and See How They Run, plus TV comedy spin-offs including ‘Allo ‘Allo, Doctor in the House, Hi De Hi and the most popular show of all to appear for a summer season in Bournemouth, George and Mildred starring Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce. Other stars that appeared at the theatre include Bob Monkhouse, Terry Scott, Eric Sykes, Roy Hudd, Les Dawson, Britt Ekland, Bobby Davro, Dora Bryan, Danny La Rue and John Inman.
In 1993, an IRA bomb was discovered under the pier during a run of the farce Don’t Dress For Dinner starring Les Dennis, Vicki Michelle, Su Pollard and Lionel Blair. Luckily, the semtex failed to go off, and the IRA issued a statement the next day explaining that the bomb failed to explode due to a “technical difficulty” with the detonator.
At the turn of the millennium, the future of the theatre looked particularly risky when the farce No Sex Please We’re British starring Linda Lusardi and Barry Howard was pulled mid-season due to poor ticket sales. It was the beginning of the end of the golden years when a packed house could be guaranteed. A new management team took over and put on one night stands with artists such as Chas and Dave and Zambezi Express, but in 2011, Bournemouth’s planning board voted seven to one for new plans for the theatre after it was revealed the venue lost £300,000 over the past five years. Later that year, planning was approved for a change of use to an adventure sports attraction. The theatre closed in 2013 and the building re-opened as the Rock Reef Indoor Activity Centre in May 2014. The new venture has been carefully designed to allow a return to theatre use, should it be desired in the future.
The Pier Theatre today (Photograph John Cherry).
Bournemouth International Centre – Exeter Road
The Bournemouth International Centre (Photograph John Cherry).
The mayor, Cllr. Michael Filer, opened the Bournemouth International Centre, or BIC for short, on Thursday 6th September 1984. A new conference centre had been discussed by the council as far back as the 1960s, but, the real debate over building the BIC didn’t start until the 1970s. After years of discussions, meetings and debates, the council finally gave the go-ahead to the company, Module Two’s, plans in January 1981. The site on the west cliff that was formerly a cluster of hotels and the Ritz music venue was cleared, and the building began in 1982, at a cost of £18 million.
The site is cleared ready for building to begin (Photograph Flickr).
The first stage of the BIC boasted two halls, the 4,000 plus capacity Windsor Hall and the smaller 1,200 capacity Tregonwell Hall, an indoor swimming pool with wave machine, plus the Solent Restaurant, the Smugglers Wine Bar, the Purbeck Bar and several meeting rooms. In 1990, a circular hall was added to the rear of the building called the Purbeck Hall at a cost of £6 million and in 2004, the swimming pool was controversially removed and replaced with the 2,000 capacity Solent Hall at a cost of £22 million, which also included extensive renovations and the expansion of the Windsor Hall.
The BIC from the pier (Photograph John Cherry).
The initial purpose of the centre was to attract corporate events, including annual conferences by the main political parties. The first party to hold a conference at the BIC was the Labour Party under leader Neil Kinnock in 1985. The Conservatives became regulars in the conference diary, with Margaret Thatcher hosting her final conference as leader in 1990, just three weeks before she was ousted from Downing Street by her own party. The Conservatives never returned after 2006, when they were in opposition under David Cameron, and the last Labour conference occurred in 2007, when Tony Blair was Prime Minister. The Liberal Democrats held their last conference in Bournemouth in 2023.
Joe Bonamassa, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan at the BIC (Photographs John Cherry).
Over the years, the BIC has attracted many national and international bands and artists. From top stars such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Dolly Parton, Ringo Starr, Barry Manilow, Johnny Cash, Elton John, James Taylor, BB King, Leonard Cohen, Diana Ross, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Tom Jones to top pop and rock bands and rappers such as Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Oasis, Take That, One Direction, Sting, Bjork, Alice Cooper, Motorhead, Deep Purple, 50 Cent and Stormzy.
In 2010, Bournemouth council handed the management of its entertainment and leisure venues to BHLive, a charitable trust, and in 2024, the BIC celebrated its fortieth birthday. Although the venue attracts top names, it is not as loved as the council would like it to be. Its detractors point to the fact that the BIC helped hasten the demise of a venue that was well-loved and that was the Winter Gardens. Over the years there has also been criticism of the acoustics in the Windsor Hall, which, to be fair, isn’t always the fault of the building, but down to the sound man overseeing certain acts. It has also been likened to a soulless aircraft hangar, which can’t be so easily defended. Like it or loath it, the BIC is the only major concert hall the town has, so until it is replaced, which isn’t likely any day soon, it is here to stay.
The Sheridan Imax – Bath Road, Bournemouth
The Sheridan Imax (Photograph Flickr.com).
The controversial Imax Cinema was built on the site of Bournemouth’s first swimming baths, built in 1838. Because of their popularity, they were upgraded in 1887, but a brand new building housing the Pier Approach Swimming Baths opened on 23rd March 1937. The baths were used by locals and holidaymakers alike, and for a couple of months in the summer, the Aqua Show was a popular attraction. In the 1980s, the council in their infinite wisdom closed the baths against the wishes of the majority of the populace, as a swimming pool was incorporated into the newly constructed Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) a stone’s throw away. The old baths were demolished, leaving an unrestricted view of the bay from Bath Road. Ironically, the swimming pool in the BIC was closed by the council in 2004.
The Pier Approach Swimming Baths (Photograph Flickr.com).
The Imax was built in 1999 by the developers Sheridan, but ongoing problems delayed the opening until March 2002. Initially, people were excited at the prospect of watching films on a large screen. However, it soon came to light that feature films were not available and only fifteen to twenty-minute shorts were shown. Once people had been for the novelty value, there was no reason to return. Three years later the Imax closed, supposedly for a refurbishment, but it never re-opened. Gradually opposition to the building grew, and the council was heavily criticised for allowing what most people saw as a blot on the landscape that spoiled the view of the bay, to be built in the first place. In 2005, the Imax made the ‘Dirty Dozen’ of the most hated buildings in the UK, as voted by the general public on the Channel 4 TV show Demolition.
In 2010, the council bought the building from Sheridan for £7.5million and looked into ways of utilising the building by possibly lowering the roof to restore the view. After much consultation, it was finally decided that the building should be knocked down. Demolition started in 2012 and was completed the following year. The seats from the Imax were donated to the Shelley Theatre Trust in Boscombe. The site is now the Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf course.
The Imax today; Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf course (Photograph John Cherry).
Christchurch
Royal Cinema Theatre / The New Gaiety Picture House / The Pavilion Electric Theatre / The Pavilion Cinema and Dance Hall / The Royal British Legion Club / Mad Dance Studio – 61 / 63 Bargates, Christchurch
The four hundred capacity Royal Cinema Theatre in Bargates, Christchurch, opened on 9th July 1914 with a recital from a pianist and vocalist before a screening of a Keystone Cops comedy. The name changed in December 1919 to the New Gaiety Picture House, which hosted live shows and silent films. Two years later, it became the Pavilion Electric Theatre before settling on the Pavilion Cinema and Dance Hall.
A year after the Regent opened in the High Street, the Pavilion was refurbished and re-opened on 14th February 1933, but its future was short-lived. W. A. Wimbleton, who owned the majority shares of the cinema, formed a syndicate to buy the Regent. The Pavilion’s days were numbered and closed on 10th December 1933 with a screening of The Big Cage starring Clyde Beatty, Mickey Rooney and Anita Page.
During the war, it was a billet for Canadian troops and then a social club. For many years, the building was home to the Christchurch branch of the Royal British Legion. In 2017, the club closed, but it has reopened upstairs in the premises, while downstairs is home to a dance studio.
The Pavilion Cinema & Dance Hall (Photograph Tom Hiscox).
The Regent – 51 High Street, Christchurch
The Regent Christchurch (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The seven hundred capacity Regent was built in an Art Deco style for local solicitor Thomas J. Rowley at a cost of £25,000. The Cinema opened on 26th December 1931 with the comedy Taming of the Shrew starring Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1936, it was taken over by Portsmouth Town Cinemas, but was then bought by Shipman and King Cinemas in the late sixties. A few years later, the Grade Organisation took over the Regent and when they merged with EMI, it came under the ABC banner. Unusually, for the time, the Regent kept its name and wasn’t re-branded as an ABC Cinema.
The cinema closed in July 1973 with the double bill, The Thief Who Came to Dinner, starring Ryan O’Neil, Warren Oates and Jacqueline Bisset plus John Wayne and Ann Margaret in The Train Robbers. It re-opened as a Mecca Social and Bingo Club, but closed in February 1982. It was bought by the Christchurch Borough Council in November. A trust was formed to run the theatre and the actress Dora Bryan performed the opening ceremony on 11th June 1983.
The Regent auditorium (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The Regent is still operational and is still owned by the council, but is run by a small retinue of permanent staff with help from volunteers. In 2020, the auditorium and foyer were renovated at a cost of £400,000, with money raised by ticket sales. The Regent now doubles as a cinema and theatre.
The Regent today (Photograph Tom Hiscox).
Poole
The Amity Palace of Varieties / The Amity Hall – 123 / 125 High Street, Poole
The Amity Hall in Poole High Street (Photograph poolehighstreetculture.co.uk).
In 1882, a large hall was built in Poole High Street, which was used by speakers and for concerts and variety entertainment. It was later renamed the Amity Hall and was utilised by the Ancient Order of Oddfellows and at a later date, the Amity Lodge of Freemasons.
The Amity Palace of Varieties was the first cinema in town when it presented the first film to be seen in the town on 13th November 1896. John D. Ablett brought his Theatrograph to the hall in a show billed as, “Animated photographs! Scenes in real life are faithfully reproduced! The marvel of the age! The wonder of the century!” The following year, on the 16th June, Alexander, Howe and Cushing’s United Show brought a menagerie of animals and curiosities to the hall alongside London’s latest scientific craze, the cinematographe. On Monday 4th October 1897, the Poole brothers presented scenes of Africa and the Royal Wedding with accompaniment from performing foxes, ducks and rats for a week long engagement.
Walter West took over management of the Amity Hall and in 1931, and upgraded the facilities to include the latest talking equipment. On Monday July 21st the first talking movie was screened with Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy starring in the 1929 film King of the Khyber Rifles and during the fifties, the cinema was taken over by local children as they flocked to the weekly Saturday afternoon matinees. the Amity closed its doors for the last time on 14th June 1959, . The site is now commercial premises.
The site of the Amity Hall today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Bioscope Hall / The Plaza Cinema – 38 Sandbanks Road, Parkstone, Poole
Located in Lower Parkstone, the Bioscope Hall was opened in approximately 1909. A couple of years later, it was renamed Plaza Cinema. It was the first cinema to operate in Parkstone, but closed when more cinemas opened in the area. The building is now owned by two businesses.
The Plaza Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
Whitehall Premier Picture Palace – 51 Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole
The Whitehall Picture Palace was opened in approximately 1910. Very little is known about this cinema and estimates vary on the capacity of the building and when it closed. The cinema was demolished and replaced with a private house.
The the site of the Whitehall Picture Palace today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Parkstone Empire Cinema / The Bijou Cinema – 310 Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole
Located in Asley Road, Upper Parkstone, the Parkstone Empire Cinema possibly opened in 1911 as a Bioscope theatre. By 1914, it had been re-named the Bijou Cinema. This tiny cinema probably closed during the First World War. The building is now a retail outlet.
The site of the Bijou Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Poole Electric Theatre – High Street, Poole
The Poole Electric Theatre in the High Street (Photograph cinematreasures.org).
James Bravery, managing director of Popular Bioscope Syndicates Ltd., opened the Poole Electric Theatre in 1911. The first film to be screened was the silent A Flying Day. It closed on 30th October 1926 with The Fighting Edge, starring Kenneth Harlan and Patsy Ruth Miller. The building was demolished in 1927 and the site was lost to redevelopment, but it is thought to have stood roughly where Falkland Square is today.
The approximate site of the Poole Electric today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Victory Palace Cinema – 362 Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole
The Victory Palace Cinema was also operated by James Bravery and opened in 1920 with Jack Devereaux in the get rich quick, silent film Grafters and Hazel Dawn and Hal Clarendon in One of Our Girls. Variety shows were also a part of the programming.
The Victory Palace Cinema closed on 24th February 1935 with Joe E. Brown and Ginger Rogers in the 1932 western Tenderfoot plus Florence Desmond and William Austin in the British comedy High Society. It was demolished and replaced with the Regal Cinema. This too has now been demolished, and an Iceland supermarket and betting shop is located on the site.
The site of the Victory Palace today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Regent Cinema / Regent Bingo Club – High Street / Lonfleet, Poole
The Regent Poole High Street (Photograph poolehighstreetproject.co.uk).
The Regent Theatre opened on 4th December 1926 on the site of the old Victory Palace Cinema with Fay Compton and John Stuart in the silent drama London Love. The cinema was operated by the independent South Coast theatres circuit. The capacity was for one thousand patrons in stalls and a circle, and was equipped with a stage and seven dressing rooms.
Initially, it was a theatre that presented revues and plays, but some films were screened in-between productions. With the arrival of talkies, the theatre switched to a full-time cinema and was re-named the Regent Cinema. The theatre closed while a Christie theatre organ was installed and it re-opened on 4th July 1931 with Sydney Howard in Tilly of Bloomsbury on the screen and Jack Taylor giving a recital on the new organ. The cinema was independently run throughout its existence, but closed on 1st June 1968 with Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn in the romantic comedy drama Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
The cinema was converted into the independent Regent Bingo Club, which was active until 1977 when it closed down. The site of the cinema is now part of the Dolphin Centre.
The approximate site of the Regent Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Empire Hall / The Liberal Hall / The Hamworthy Liberal Club – 243 Blandford Road, Hamworthy, Poole
The Empire Hall was originally built in 1920 as a utility building that hosted roller skating, wrestling and variety shows. It was also home to the Hamworthy branch of the Salvation Army. The hall was converted into a four hundred seated cinema in 1935 and was opened by the Mayor of Poole. The first film screened at the Empire was the comedy Baby, Take a Bow starring a six-year-old Shirley Temple.
In 1959, the cinema closed with John Mills and his daughter Hayley Mills, in her first major role, starring in the crime drama Tiger Bay. It became a popular music venue in the early sixties before closing, then after a short period of inactivity, the hall re-opened as a music venue on 25th October 1967 with a gig by American vocal quartet, The Drifters. It is now home to the Hamworthy Liberal Club.
The Empire today (Photograph John Cherry).
The Regal Cinema – 362 Ashley Road, Poole
The Regal Cinema Parkstone (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The Regal Cinema opened on 18th September 1935 on the site of the old Victory Palace Cinema, with a screening of the Anna Neagle, Margaretta Scott and Cedric Hardwicke costume drama, Peg of Old Drury. The state of the art Art Deco styled cinema also had a café. During the fifties the cinema was equipped to screen 3D films and for six pence downstairs and nine pence in the balcony, the local kids could attend the Saturday morning matinees.
The Regal Cinema closed on 12th October 1963 with Frank Sinatra, Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon in the comedy Come Blow Your Horn. One of the reasons why the cinema closed was the continual disruption caused by gangs of local hooligans during screenings. It was demolished and an Iceland supermarket and betting shop are now located on the site.
The site of the Regal Cinema today (Photograph John Cherry).
Poole Arts Centre / The Lighthouse – 21 Kingland Road, Poole
The Poole Arts Centre (Photograph Bournemouth Echo).
The Poole Arts Centre opened on 1st April 1978 and cost £4 million to build. Although the Duke and Princess Michael of Kent were there on the day, it wasn’t officially opened until 23rd March 1979, by the Queen and Prince Phillip while they were visiting Poole. It consisted of the 1,500 capacity Wessx Hall, the 600 seated Towngate Theatre, the 143 capacity Ashley Cinema, the Seldown Studios, Longfleet Gallery and the Canford rehearsal rooms, plus bars, restaurants and a coffee shop.
Poole Lighthouse auditorium (Photograph lighthousepoole.co.uk).
Shortly after opening, the BSO left its home of the past thirty years at the Winter Gardens, and moved into its new home in Poole, although they remained the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The move was yet another nail in the coffin for the Winter Gardens, before the Bournemouth International Centre finished it off in 1984. The Arts Centre closed in May 2002 for an £8.5 million radical refurbishment paid for by Arts Council Lottery Awards, the Borough of Poole and through private donations and reopened as the rebranded Lighthouse Centre in October of the same year. The refurbishment modernized the cinema, expanded the capacity of the Wessex Hall and added a new restaurant.
The Towngate Theatre regularly hosts plays, contemporary dance, ballet, jazz gigs, operas, stand-up comedy and pantomimes, while the Wessex Hall presents pop and rock shows, as well as classical concerts. Names to have played the concert hall over the years have included Wham, Oasis, the Jackson Five, Tina Turner, The Who, U2, Kiss, The Clash, The Smiths, Page & Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, The Jam, Dire Straits, King Crimson and Blondie. In April 1979, Kate Bush played a warm show at the Wessex Hall in lieu of her first UK tour, but tragedy struck when her lighting engineer fell to his death while the crew was packing up.
The Lighthouse is the largest regional arts centre in Britain and despite the venue relying on donations from the public to help it through the pandemic and dealing with rising energy bills, it is still a popular, well attended venue.
Bournemouth Beat Boom 
Great Record. I also have some colour photos of various cinemas in Bournemouth if you would like to add them to the collection.
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Hi Robert, I would love to have more cinema photos. I will drop you an email where you can attach the the scans. Thanks John
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