THE  CINEMAS  OF  TROWBRIDGE – part 1

Jonathan Falconer

The first demonstration of moving pictures to be projected onto a screen in Trowbridge was given at the Town Hall on the 3^rd and 4^th November 1896. The ‘lifelike action on the screen’ comprised ‘pictures of a railway station with moving trains and figures, waves dashing over rocks, passengers landing from a steamer, street scenes with moving buses etc.’ ^[1] The author of this article declared that he had no doubt the apparatus would come into more general use once it had been improved.

For three nights in March 1910, Trowbridge audiences at the Town Hall were thrilled by the delights of ‘Lloyd’s News. For as little as sixpence the audience could watch a programme of ‘animated pictures ... including a most romantic and thrilling bioscope story’. ^[2]

The following month Professor J. B. Keswick provided a comprehensive programme of entertainment: ‘character sketches, health lectures, songs to dis­solving views by Miss L. R. Leach, mezzo-soprano, and animated pictures including that ‘stirring and pat­riotic’ film The Invaders.’ ^[3] Admission to this spectacle was free, although a collection was taken afterwards.

Skating-rinks began to lose popularity towards the end of the decade, and many promoters took them over for use as cinemas. The ideal proportions of the Premier Skating Rink at Hill’s Hall in Silver Street (now Dingle’s) resulted in its takeover in early December 1910 by Albany Ward, owner of a string of west-country picture palaces. Ward proceeded to make alterations to the building. He installed seating and erected a stage behind which crude dressing rooms were built with bare whitewashed brick walls for the artistes. The screen was probably a curtain or whitewashed wall at the back of the stage, and an area just in front of the stage was provided to accommodate a piano or small orchestra.

Electric current to supply power came from a dynamo driven by an oil engine on the premises. A bright arc-light burned over the entrance to the hall in Silver Street, enticing audiences like moths to a candle. This cramped, noisy, and doubtlessly odorous establishment was completed and open for business by the end of December 1910, and known as Albany Ward’s Picture Palace and Skating Rink (it was still devoted to skating during the daytime).

Early in December the Wiltshire Times announced that ‘The standard that Mr. Ward has set on his enter­tainments is notorious, and is a guarantee that Trowbridge will have nothing but the best class of entertainment provided for it.’ ^[4]

The resident manager was Bryant Walters, who also did a turn as an eccentric comedian in one of the many variety acts performed in the intervals between pictures. During the last week of December, collections were made on behalf of the Pretoria Pit (Bolton) Disaster Fund. Takings for the week up to Friday 30 December 1910 amounted to £1 14s 2d. ^[5]

The New Year saw the population of Trowbridge and its environs added to the growing number of cinemagoers across the country. Such curious delights as Antonio Savaro —‘Equilibrist and Chair Balancer’, and Jack Toler and his ‘Wonderful Dog’ provided the variety entertainment between the silent films, all of which could be seen for as little as threepence.

At sometime during 1913, skating was discontinued and the Picture Palace became known as Albany Ward’s Electric Palace of Varieties with a new local manager, T. H. Egerton. Seats for most performances could be booked in advance from the Palace or from Millington’s Music Saloon in Fore Street.

What Albany Ward grandly called ‘The picture of all time’ came to Trowbridge on 21 July 1913 for three days. A film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables was presented as a ‘screen play in 4 epochs and 9 parts, and 12,500 feet in length’, ^[6] an epic production by the standards of the day. Later in the year, Friday 19 December was set aside as a benefit night for the manager Mr. Egerton. This must have been a welcome Christmas present in what was to be the last peacetime Christmas for the next four years. In addition to the full advertised programme, there appeared ‘special turns and a strong array of local talent’. ^[7]

Since its birth, the moving picture had drifted from fairground to music hall, converted shop to rented hall, and it was high time a purpose-built structure to accommodate the invention and its clamouring audiences was created. Sometime during the early part of January 1914, Albany Ward bought the Woolpack Hotel in Fore Street. He had abandoned his proposal to erect a Picture Hall (for which the plans were approved) on a site at the Silver Street entrance to the People’s Park. With a frontage of 124 feet abutting onto the road (now Park Road) the entrance was to have been diagonally across the outer corner facing up to Silver Street. The hall would have extended from the rear of the Town Hall on the opposite side of the road to a point just past the entrance to the Park. Instead, Albany Ward planned to extinguish the licence at the Woolpack and to convert the premises into a Picture Palace with two shops. Ward acquired the rights of a syndicate from Bath who had already submitted plans in 1913 for a Picture Theatre on the site.

The elevation of the Bath businessmen’s syndicate projected Picture Palace in Fore Street, Trowbridge. Taken from plan deposited.

Ward decided to retain the bar at the front of the Woolpack and the rooms above it with Mr. Fuidge remaining as tenant. He filed his application for the proposed Picture Theatre, lock-up shop, and alterations to the Woolpack, on 20 February 1914.

In the meantime the Electric Palace of Varieties in Silver Street continued to draw crowds, and during the week beginning 8 March the Palace filled nightly to see the film The Last Days of Pompeii. Among the turns featured that week was Tom Franks, an accomplished ventriloquist, with his doll Billy, who caused uproar by calling to imaginary persons in the audience by name. Also performing were magician Henri Bekker and the Sisters Petite, who presented ‘a refined musical turn, introducing expert violin playing’. ^[8]

Albany Ward’s plans to build a new Picture Theatre were approved by Trowbridge Urban District Council on 25 July 1914, and construction began soon afterwards. As well as the desire for a purpose-built structure in which to show films, the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1909 pressured Ward and other proprietors to provide safer buildings with fire-resistant projection booths and toilet facilities for staff, stage artistes and patrons.

With the outbreak of war in August and the introduction of an amusements tax, there was a temporary slump in cinema attendance across the country. However, by December 1914 Albany Ward’s new Trowbridge Palace of Varieties in Fore Street was complete, and business was transferred there from the old premises in Silver Street on 14 December.

The grand opening of the New Palace Theatre took place at 7 o’clock on Monday 14 December 1914, a cold winter evening. As well as a full programme of popular films for its week of inauguration, the resident manager, G. A. Deighton, also presented ‘The Sunbeams, a select costume concert party’ and Morville & Domett in a ‘refined vocal act’ as part of the variety acts. ^[9] The theatre pianist was a young man in his twenties, Charles Ellis (b.1890), who lived at Wesley Road and who also worked at Millington’s Music Saloon in Fore Street.

The New Palace Theatre, with a frontage of 42 feet in width, and an overall length of almost 170 feet, boasted the latest in ‘heating, ventilation, and novel lighting effects.’ In reality, the ventilation system left a lot to be desired when there was a full house. Entry to the 635-seat theatre was by way of a short covered corridor on Fore Street, which led to a double set of steps up to the black-and-white tiled foyer. Doors on either side of the pay-box led to the stalls with seating for 510. Access to the 125-seat balcony could be gained by two stairways, which led up from the foyer. At the far end of the 72 foot -long auditorium was a large stage with an orchestra pit in front. Three dressing rooms were provided to the rear of the stage and a side entrance with pay-box to the left. The auditorium was decorated in a pseudo-Classical style featuring plaster-moulded urns and pillars with Corinthian capitals. The elaborate plaster-work proved difficult to maintain as the years went by, and specialists had to be brought from London to deal with repairs. In 1922 Albany Ward sold his string of theatres, includ­ing the Palace Theatre, to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres (PCT), which in turn became part of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation Limited.

The years 1927—1930 were the watershed of the film industry and its attendant cinema buildings. In 1927, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, heralded the introduction of the ‘talkies’. The ‘talkies’ added a whole new dimension to the cinema experience and quickly outdated the barn-like theatres, which were not acoustically-designed internally. The demand arose for a new type of auditorium, free from side-wall echoes and distorted sound. Cinema designers came up with the acoustic box, which sealed the film soundtrack inside and prevented external noise from entering the cinema. Bigger buildings became more fashionable and 1929 saw over 300 new cinemas in various stages of construction throughout Great Britain. ^[10]

The second purpose-built cinema to open in the town was the small New Kinema, situated at the Stallard Street end of Bythesea Road. It was opened on Wednesday 19 December 1934 by C. I. Haden, President of Trowbridge & District Hospital. The films for the grand opening performance and the ensuing week featured Lilian Harvey and Gene Raymond in I am Suzanne, and John Boles and Shirley Temple in Stand up and Cheer. The first day’s takings after expenses, a sum of just over £20, was donated to Trowbridge & District Hospital by the proprietor H. Andrews. ^[11] Owing to technical difficulties at the final performance in the evening of the opening day, when the sound apparatus suffered a complete breakdown, the performance was abandoned and tickets refunded.

Front elevation of the New Kinema, 1934. Architect W.W. Snailum

The New Kinema, a private family concern, was run by H. Andrews and his sons. Although he was deaf, Mr Andrews could tell when the petrol engine that provided the electricity went wrong by the change in the vibrations he could feel.

Compared with the Gaumont, the 454-seat Kinema appeared a very insubstantial building. Designed by architect W. W. Snailum of Trowbridge, the building had an austere frontage 31 feet and 6 inches wide, a height of 27 feet to the eaves, and an overall length of 87 feet and 6 inches. The compact interior featured green velvet upholstery and draw-curtains of gold. Ceiling lighting consisted of back-lit coloured square panels and amber floodlights at the sides. The front elevation was of concrete-rendered brick and lit by neon signs displaying the name of the film being shown. The cinema’s name appeared in lighted recessed grills and ‘still’ advertising cases bore alternately flashing lights. In the 69 foot-long auditorium there were seats for 384 whilst the balcony could accommodate a further 70.

The Regal Cinema, on the opposite side of Bythesea Road from the New Kinema and close to the Territorial Army Barracks, was opened at 2.20pm on Monday 1 November 1937 by Councillor Perkins Garlick, J.P., Chairman of Trowbridge Urban District Council. The Regal is a good example of the steel frame and composite construction method (brick bearing walls and steel trusses), which offered cheap, simple and rapid construction. The largest super-cinemas could be erected in less than twelve months using this method. Designed by Harold S. Scott A.R.I.B.A. of Birmingham, and managed by S. W. Banks, the Regal could seat 794 in the stalls and 216 in the balcony, a total of 1,010. During the opening week, audiences could see George Formby in Feather Your Nest and Bobby Breen in Rainbow on the River. A seat in the stalls cost sixpence. Free car-parking and covered cycle storage was provided.              

W. E. Trent’s 1936 façade elevation. From the deposited plans.

The lavish opening ceremony of the new Gaumont Picture Theatre took place on Monday 29 November at 7.30pm. To ensure that everything ran smoothly on the night, George Bigwood carefully rehearsed the proceedings beforehand with his staff. The Rt. Hon. the Countess of Radnor performed the opening ceremony, and a personal appearance was made by the young film-star Margaret Lockwood. A fanfare was played by the trumpeters of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, adding to the splendour of the occasion, and a bouquet was presented to Miss Lockwood by Hazel Bigwood, daughter of the manager. The occasion was significant enough to merit a complete back page feature in the Daily Sketch the next day. For three days that week audiences could watch King Solomon’s Mines starring Paul Robeson and Cedric Hardwicke.

The new Gaumont Picture Theatre was designed by W. E. Trent, F.R.I.B.A., F.S.I., Chief Architect of Gaumont-British, who was the architect responsible for the mock-Tudor style Gaumont Palace, Salisbury and for supervising the modernistic New Victoria in London. Trent’s buildings were characterised by a compact plan, which often overcame the problems of an awkward site. His normally confident treatment of elevations was hampered on the Trow­bridge Gaumont by demands from adjoining property owners and the Urban District Council to preserve the architectural integrity of Fore Street.

The 1246-seat Gaumont certainly was a haven in which to escape from the worries and the international tensions of the late thirties. The Wiltshire Times described it as

‘like going through the vestibule and up the companion way of a big new ocean-liner when you pass through the brand new blue doors and up the chromium-plated stair­case’. ^[12]

The foyer was decorated with a mixture of apricot paintwork and walnut panelling and the 858-stalls seat auditorium in dark blue and silver with a soft peach ceiling. On the lower portion of the walls, a rich blue dado merged successfully into the blue of the general seating upholstery. The main curtains were carried out in varying tones of blue, with silver cords and tassels, and a rich gold fringe at the bottom. A notable feature of the cinema was the great balcony, which seated 388. Moving outside, the façade of the Gaumont was faced in Bath stone with a well-balanced colour scheme of blue and white. Over the main entrance a wide projecting canopy displayed illuminated publicity announcements, brightly coloured in various shades of blue and picked out in vermilion. The whole upper portion of the façade was floodlit from lamps concealed in the canopy.

‘Grand Opening Souvenir Programmes’ of the Gaumont and Regal

It was crucial that the illusion of the cinema, with its smell of perfume pervading the air, gleaming floors and fittings, bright lights and plush seats, should not be damaged by shortcomings amongst the staff. George Bigwood inspected his staff of thirty every day in a staff parade, at which daily duties were assigned and tidiness checked.

So, by the end of 1937 Trowbridge people had the choice of three ultra-modern cinemas to go to, with a total of over 2,700 seats nightly.

To mark the first anniversary of the opening of the Gaumont, a large birthday cake was baked and slices were given to the audience in celebration. As 1938 drew to a close with Chamberlain’s promise of ‘peace in our time’, gas-masks were issued to the citizens of Great Britain, intimating the outbreak of another world war, before the Gaumont’s second birthday. George Bigwood joined the Army in 1940, returning to manage the cinema again on the cess­ation of hostilities in 1945. On V. E. Day Trowbridge audiences could watch Sensations of 1945 with Eleanor Powell and Dennis O’Keefe, and Bowery to Broadway with Susanna Foster and Jack Oakie.

A familiar Trowbridge figure of the ‘forties and ‘fifties was Joe Collins, who lived alone at Prospect Place. Joe, a man of indeterminate age and loud voice, wore a tattered bowler hat and morning coat, and always carried an umbrella. He delivered handbills and wore sandwich boards for the Gaumont. If patrons left their bicycles outside the cinema, Joe would clean them with an oily rag, and demand sixpence from the owner upon his return. He was often seen cleaning windows with the same rag afterwards.

During the ‘fifties and ‘sixties, in addition to the Gaumont’s regular film performances, special one-night stage shows featured big bands such as The Squadronnaires and Joe Loss, as well as pop-idols of the era like Marty Wilde and Craig Douglas. The Top Twenty Hit Parade at the Gaumont on Saturday 26 February 1960 presented such stars of the day as Alan Freeman, the Mudlarks and the Avons. The cheapest tickets were 3/6d. It was during the ’fifties and ’sixties that the cinema industry began to go into a steady decline. This was due to a number of factors, not least the advent of television, which brought entertainment into people’s homes, and cheaply. Attempts by promoters to monopolize the industry, by reducing the number of cinema buildings, and by introducing block-bookings of films for

The façade of the Trowbridge Gaumont in 1945 and the interior at opening in 1937.

These two illustrations are from Allen Eyles’ 1996 book Gaumont British Cinemas, and are reproduced here with the author’s permission.

cinemas in one area, gave little choice to cinemagoers. Vandalism and abusive behaviour in cinemas by minority elements led to a loss of patronage, and expensive repairs to fittings and furnishings. This behaviour was unknown in the cinemas of pre-war Britain.

After the last performance on Saturday 17 May 1952, the New Kinema was closed for re-decorating and re-seating; to be re­opened shortly by a new proprietor. Throughout May and June space was reserved on the entertainments page of the Wiltshire Times for the Focus Cinema as it was renamed, advertising ‘the best show in town opening shortly with comfort, courtesy and service.’ Trowbridge was urged to

‘Focus on July 14th,

Big Technicolor Week,

the opening of the Focus Cinema.’

J. F. Yardley, the new proprietor, decided against a formal opening, and on Monday 14 July the doors opened in the usual way for the 4.30 programme and the start of the week’s all-Technicolor programme. Joel McCrea and Arlene Dahl starred in The Outriders, and Dick Powell and Paula Raymond in The Tall Target. Also by special request, Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun.

Although no great structural alterations were made, the redecoration was so extensive as almost to transform the cinema. The interior walls were repainted in attractive pastel shades, new seating was installed and carpet laid. The lighting was altered so that the footlights in front of the screen could be changed in colour to give a varying colour scheme for the screen curtains. Air conditioning was improved, the outside repainted and a large neon sign bearing the name of the cinema erected. Mr Yardley said that he intended to show three-dimensional films in September, if possible, and he also planned to show cine-television when it was possible. The cheapest seats were 1/6d and old age pensioners could occupy any seat on any day for just 7d.

Sadly, within a year, the Focus Cinema closed. Mr Yardley announced its closure after the last performance on Saturday 23 May 1953; the burden of entertainment tax and lack of patronage were the reasons he gave for the closure. The last films shown were Laraine Day and Robert Ryan in Woman on Pier 13, and Dana Andrews and Carla Balenda in Sealed Cargo. Prices had been cut from 2/7d to 2/- for a balcony seat and from 1/6d to 1/- for the front stalls.

The Regal’s unspectacular career spanned nearly twenty-three years. It closed on Saturday 19 November 1960: all carpets and fittings were removed for use in other ABC Cinemas and the seats were put up for sale. From 1960 until the closure of the Odeon in 1971, Trow­bridge had just one cinema to serve the town once more.

The Trowbridge Gaumont / Odeon (as it was renamed on the 11^th November 1962) closed for good after the last performance on Saturday 20 March 1971. Audiences had become mere shadows of their former selves and the owners, Rank Leisure Services Ltd., came to the conclusion that it was uneconomic to keep it open. Dolphin Property Developers of Salisbury purchased the site and demolished the cinema to build a supermarket, which is now occupied by Knee’s. A sad end to a colourful chapter in the history of entertainments in Trowbridge.

Epilogue 1974—1982

For a little over three years after the closure of the Odeon in Fore Street, Trowbridge was without a cinema. However, on Friday 6 December 1974 the town’s fortunes changed with the opening of the twin purpose-built Europa Cinemas in the new Market Yard development, now known as Castle Place. The cinemas cost £45,000 to equip, with each projector costing £10,000. ^[13] Each cinema could seat 165 in a plain auditorium without a balcony. Thin and badly soundproofed walls characterized the Europa Cinemas with sound penetrating inside from the adjacent auditorium and the multi-storey car park. Despite a good opening week with people having to be turned away, aud­iences began to dwindle, hastened no doubt by the boom in home video rentals and vandalism.

The Europa Cinemas closed for good early in July 1982, unannounced in the press. Twenty-two years later, Trowbridge is still without a cinema. In recent years, a number of national chains have considered building multiplexes in the town, but none of these plans have progressed much beyond the feasibility stage. It would appear to be a simple matter of financial viability. Trowbridge is already well served by state-of-the-art multiplexes in Bristol and Swindon, with a new one due to open in Bath in the autumn of 2004, so there is probably no money to be made in building and operating a new cinema in Wiltshire’s county town.

Another link with the town’s cinematic past vanished in the 1980s when the Regal building on Bythesea Road was demolished to make way for a nondescript second-hand car business, complete with Portakabin. The former Europa cinema building in Castle Place continues to be used as a health and leisure club, which enjoys some measure of popularity, while the old Gaumont / Odeon site in Fore Street is still occupied by H. J. Knee’s department store. Trowbridge’s other cinema of recent years, the diminutive Kinema, also on Bythesea Road, vanished some time ago after enjoying its declining years as an estate agent’s office (appropriately renamed ‘The Focus’). The site is now part of the traffic roundabout and road network leading to the multi-storey car park adjacent to the Asda superstore.

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Trowbridge in the Kinematograph Year Books for 1938 (left) and 1944 (right). The Palace was closed and demolished for the Gaumont to open, both in 1937.

Both from the Gould Theatre Collection.