Pavilion Cinema

127 Westgate Road,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4AG

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Located a few doors away from the Tyne Theatre. The Pavilion Theatre was opened on 23rd December 1903. Designed by the noted theatre architectural firm Wylson & Long, it had seating in orchestra, dress circle levels and a gallery which seated 600. The internal decorations were by Felix de Jong and included busts of naked ladies as part of the decoration.

It was equipped with a Bioscope projection box, and films were part of the variety programme from the early days. Between 1915 and 1917 it had dropped films and was staging variety and revues.

It re-opened under new management as the New Pavilion Theatre on 10th December 1917 with D.W. Griffith’s "Intolerance", and remained a cinema for the remainder of its life. A projection box had been built on the stage.

In 1919 a Nicholson & Lord (straight) organ was installed, which had 2Manuals and 15 speaking stops. In March 1928 the Pavilion Cinema was taken over by Denman/Gaumont British Theatres.

In late-1960, it was closed for extensive internal modernisation, which removed or covered over all traces of the original decorations. Re-opened on 31st January 1961 as a ‘Roadshow’ cinema, it was re-furbished again in March/April 1968. Closed by the Rank Organisation on 29th November 1975 with Robert Blake in Truman Capote’s "In Cold Blood", the building then stood empty and unused until 1990 when the auditorium was demolished for a planned proposal of flats to be built on the site, retaining the facade. Delays in building the flats resulted in the facade being demolished in May/June 1992, and a block of flats was built on the site.

Contributed by Ken Roe