Camelot Cinema

The Pavilion first opened in 1912 as a building for general purpose use and shows. In 1919 it became the Pavilion Cinema with a seating capacity of 750. The proscenium opening was 30feet wide.

It was operated by Sound and Movement (a company based in Plymouth) for many years. In the mid-1950’s it was taken over by the A. Jackson Withers circuit and all was going well until June 1968 when the building was gutted by a fire.

It was re-built by the owners and re-opened in June 1969 as the Camelot Cinema. It had a new facade in a ‘modern’ style and a slightly larger seating capacity than the original building. It was equipped to play 70mm films and became the main cinema in the town.

In 1976 it was purchased by the Rank Organisation together with the entire Jackson Withers circuit. Rank soon disposed of the Camelot Cinema and sold it to Messrs Garfield Daniel in 1980 and they operated it in Summer Seasons only. By 1985 it was for sale again and it went to the Goldstar circuit, then to an independent operator Mr N. Whale in 1990. Closed in late-1994 it re-opened to screen the premier of the film "Blue Juice" on 11th August 1995, a film that was made on location in the area. It was then put in ‘mothballs’ hoping for some future use. In 1996 there was talk of re-opening it as a live theatre, but this came to nothing, as raising cash for the project proved too difficult.

The building stood empty for a few more years and recently (by summer 2006) it has been converted into a pub with an Australian theme known as the Walkabout Inn. All traces of it’s cinematic existance have been removed from the interior.

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater