Regal Rooms Cinema

Hawkins Street,
Dublin 2

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Irish Cinemas Ltd., Odeon (Ireland) Ltd.

Architects: Leslie C. Norton, Michael John Scott

Firms: O'Connor & Aylward, Scott & Good

Styles: Art Deco

Nearby Theaters

Regal Rooms Cinema

The Regal Rooms building was designed by architects Leslie C. Norton & Michael Scott of architectural firm Scott & Goof. It occupied the site of the Winter Gardens of the Theatre Royal (which has its own page on Cinema Treasures) to its left and opened on 30th October 1934. It was a failure financially and was closed in 1937. It was converted to a 700-seat Regal Rooms Cinema despite the fact that the 3,850-seat cine-variety Theatre Royal was adjacent. The conversion was carried out by architectural firm O'Connor & Aylward. The cinema opened on 16th April 1938 showing Carol Lombard in “True Confession” and was fitted with a Western Electric(WE) sound system. By 1948 it was operated by Odeon (Ireland) Ltd.

Renovations took place in 1955 when the side balconies were removed to increase the seating capacity to 900 and to install CinemaScope. In 1957 the Irish Premiere of “Around the World in Eighty Days” starring David Niven was held at the Regal Rooms Cinema. It closed on 30th June 1962, along with the adjacent Theatre Royal, and the last film to be screened was Michael Craig in “Upstairs and Downstairs”. The whole site, together with the Theatre Royal was redeveloped with an office block for the Department of Health and the New Metropole Cinema, which opened in 1972. In 2016 the site was again earmarked for demolition.

Contributed by Popcorn Pete

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

Biffaskin
Biffaskin on July 3, 2023 at 12:18 pm

The 1955 alterations were by O'Connor & Aylward and included alterations externally to the canopy.

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