Broadway Palace Theatre

The Broadway Cinematograph Palace opened in 1912. The facade was highly decorated in white stone. A curved arch over the entrance was topped by a statue of Britannia and on each side there was a squat tower feature. Inside the auditorium the seating was on one level and a pipe organ acompanied the silent films. It was built for and operated by Browning, Hillier & Batley.

The name was changed to Broadway Palace Theatre in around 1936 and the operator was given as A.H. Batley, one of the original operators. It was the first cinema in the area to install sound, when in 1929 a Cinephone system was fitted.

The Broadway Palace suffered extensive damage by a German rocket bomb in 1944 which destoyed the front of the building. It never re-opened as a cinema and after the end of the war a new plain front was put on the building and it was converted into retail use. In 1996 it was converted into a pub named Gordon Bennett and today there is nothing left to see of its cinematic past.

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