Plaza Cinema
North Road, Gabalfa,
Cardiff,
CF14
North Road, Gabalfa,
Cardiff,
CF14
2 people
favorited this theater
The Plaza Cinema opened on 12th March 1928 with Norma Talmadge in “Camille”. Initially an independent cinema, it was later taken over by the Cardiff Cinema Circuit, then by the Jackson Withers chain and finally by the Rank Organisation in 1976. Rank closed it on 17th October 1981 with Sigourney
Weaver in “Alien” and Jamie Lee Curtis in “The Fog”.
I remember going to the Plaza as a child with my grandmother – it always seemed huge to me…. a large lobby stretch across the front of the building and old pictures of movie stars lined the walls up the stairs to the circle. From memory the auditorium was fairly plain however, it was a great place to see a movie except for the fact that it was right infront of a busy road so the distant rumble of traffic could always be heard in the background! It was demolished about 10 years ago – a block of flats now stands on the site.
Contributed by
James Ruttley, Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Undoubtedly the best of the ten “local” cinemas in Cardiff under the same ownership.Built to a very high standard and it outshone many circuit cinemas.
In later years refurbishment took place which improved it further but audiences dwindled and the very large auditorium was no longer viable.
Architect was Howard Williams, plans survive.
The architect was also responsible for the hugh PLAZA Swansea and used the same concrete design along the front of the canopy.Both cinemas were owned by the same chain.
Some photos of the plaza can be found here (courtesy of Cardiff Central Library).
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During the 1960s the Plaza Cinema in North Road, Cardiff was managed by Dai John. He was considered to be the best manager on the Jackson Withers circuit and the Plaza was the flagship cinema. He later became the Cardiff area supervisor.
As built the Plaza had a very narrow projection box that made working difficult. Its equipment consisted of a mixture of Peerless Magna Arcs and Westar heads. The sound system was maintained by Western Electric , their engineer Charlie Crane visited monthly to make adjustments.
Whilst the box was considered difficult to operate by projectionists, at least it was well ventilated. The box having access to a balcony high above the main entrance.
Originally the Plaza’s external advertising were two multi quad panels let into the front wall either side of the entrance. Dai John was not happy about this so he had two new wood and steel panels constructed forwards at right angle to the entrance that could more easily be seen by passing motorists. These attractive white bordered panels had trellis type edges.
The Plaza had a close relationship with a number of shops nearby. As well as running Pearl, Dean and Younger advertisments, it also showed a number of professionally produced (and inhouse made) slides promoting the neighbouring shops.
The Plaza always played very up to date music during its breaks. These were supplied by Cadennes record shop next door. The deal was one free record a week in exchange for showing two slide adverts per day.Woe betide the relief projectionist who forgot the Cadenne’s slide.
Editha’s personal recollections of cinemas in South Wales are greatly appreciated by contributors to this site who have to rely on memories as paying patrons and archive research.
The Plaza Cinema, photographed in 1981:
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The Plaza drew many of its patrons from areas well away from the cinema. This being mainly due to the fact that the hall lay very close to a major bus route intersection linking north Cardiff, Llandaff and Cathays. The hall had a car park on its south side plus there was also more than adequate on street parking in North Road. All that changed circa 1968 when the Western Avenue / North Road junction was modified to include a flyover and a bypass. Parking in North Road became impossible and the Plaza car park was too small to cater for (by then) a larger number of car owning patrons.This had a severe effect on the Plaza’s patronage as car owning patrons abandoned the cinema in droves.