Palace Cinema

The Palace Cinema opened on 20 June 1933. In the mid-1950s CinemaScope was installed and a 21ft wide proscenium created in the auditorium. Externally, a simple rendered façade of three bays; central bay with recessed entrance between shops, orginally kiosk and box office, three domestic windows over, shallow pediment. Outer bays housed exits. Rooms at first floor level may have been offices or a managers flat; projection room. Seating on a single level, raked with the gradient of the site downwards. Stage and dressing room accommodation. The Palace was the theatre and cinema for the town until closure in c.1974. It became (and remains) a snooker and social club, with a false ceiling inserted in the auditorium space, and shops inserted in the side bays of the facade.