Washington Luxury Cinema
1-3 Washington Buildings, Stanwell Road,
Penarth,
CF64 2AD
1-3 Washington Buildings, Stanwell Road,
Penarth,
CF64 2AD
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The Washington Cinema was built to the side of the hotel, which remained open, on the former tennis courts. The hotel can be seen in the architect’s original drawing of 1936 to the left of the cinema.
The small restaurant adjoining the Washington is now trading as “Willmore’s”– the name of the family who operated Penarth’s cinemas.
My seven year old twins are doing a school project on the Washington Cinema, does anybody who knew it in its glory have any interesting stories or information they wouldn’t mind them quoting? It’s hard to find much about it, it would be great to discover something nobody else knows. Many thanks. It’s due in on Monday 7th April!
A photo from 2012 here :–
WASHINGTON CINEMA EXTERIOR
The art gallery appears to have re-located to the newly refurbished Pier Pavilion which also includes a totally new 68 seat digital cinema.(Listed separately) The Washington building will continue as a cafe and Tesco store with another retail unit still available.
Sadly, in the mid 1960s, the Washington manager Alan Watts was killed in a car accident at Thornhill near Cardiff. The cinema was never the same after his tragic demise and went into a noticeable terminal decline.
The Washington was indeed a very luxurious cinema. It was well carpeted, the drapes and masking were operated from the box and it contained a lift between the balcony and the foyer.
The Washington was also one of the few cinemas to contain a central vacuum cleaning system to clean the pile carpets. All around the walls were sockets connected to a central suction engine located in the basement. Thus cleaning the cinema’s extensive carpeting was very easy.
In the mid 60s this cinema possessed a very go ahead manager named Alan Watts. He introduced bingo and combined this with a film show. Thus if you played bingo on bingo nights, you could stay on and watch the main film feature free of charge.There were also bingo only sessions on Sunday evenings and Wednesday afternoons.
The projection box contained GB Kalee 12 projectors with individual mercury arc rectifiers. There was also a slide lantern. Change over between projectors was by means of combined choppers (sound and vision on one lever). A skilled projectionist named Larry operated the box through out the 60s.
In October 2008 work had begun to create a “Tesco Express” store in the building and publicity for the apartments previously planned had been removed.
Some recent photographs of the former Washington Luxury Cinema:
Two night views
http://flickr.com/photos/dip108/316767879/
http://flickr.com/photos/ben_salter/384103029/
Top of facade detail:
http://flickr.com/photos/recurrence/2951624/
A current 2007 view of the facade
View link
When the Washington opened, as well as the Windsor Kinema, films were also being shown at the “Regal” in the Paget Rooms (building survives and is still in use for live theatre shows/concerts.)
The Pavilion on Penarth Pier had also operated as a cinema for a short time in 1932. Further research needed before separate pages are created.
Publicity for the opening of the Washington ( Monday April 4th 1938) provides the following further details.
1. Opening feature- Will Hay in “Oh Mr Porter"
2. Architect- Harry Teather (Teather & Jones, Cardiff)
3. Seating- Stalls 1000, Circle 300 ,Seats "fawn velvet plush on light oak frames, spacing more than usually provided"
4. Lift from foyer to Circle.
5. Colour scheme- gold and green
6. Proscenium curtain- gold; Silver festoon curtain in front of screen for lighting effects.
7. Mirrophonic sound system
8. Picture shows how little the frontage has been altered for its new use.
9. Car Parking available for patrons.
Some recent pictures available on the “flickr” website via “Penarth Washington”