Continental Cinema
303 Wimborne Road,
Winton,
Bournemouth,
BH9 2BY
303 Wimborne Road,
Winton,
Bournemouth,
BH9 2BY
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Architects: Frederick Fogarty
Previous Names: Winton Hall, Winton Electric Picture House, Plaza Cinema
Nearby Theaters
The Continental Cinema was a small independent cinema which always had a strange smell of damp. Indeed as I write this, I can still remember the smell. Inside it had some delightful plasterwork and a very pretty rouched curtain. It also had twin or ‘lovers’ seats in the small balcony. Unfortunately, despite past glories it was always rather run down.
Opened as the Winton Hall in 1908 it was designed by local architect Frederick Fogarty. In December 1911 it began screening films and was re-named the Winton Electric Picture House in 1912. In 1928 it was briefly called the New and Popular Palace - Winton’s Superior Cinema but had been re-named Plaza Cinema in 1929. It was re-named Continental Cinema from 6th April 1953, specialising in foreign films with occasional special seasons of ‘classic’ films, Disney and some sexually explicit programmes. It closed on 8th June 1989 with the film “High Hopes”. The building was demolished almost immediately and the site lay empty and unused for many years.
Recently a pub named The Hop and Kilderkin has been built on the site.
Contributed by
Deric Botham
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Some historic detail and a couple of small photographs here:
http://www.wintonforum.co.uk/cinemas.html
An exterior picture of the Continental before closure can be found here :–
http://flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/137090494/
In the eighties, up until closure, the Continental was well run by a young guy (and mother on tickets & ice creams) who showed stuff that wasn’t on in town, including a repertory evening on Tuesdays showing classic. We were in there every week. He had a great stash of old adverts and public information films from the 1960s which all got an airing. “How to raise a dog” was a good one. One evening, when the February temperature inside the cinema was colder than outside, he treated us to “Exploring in the Antarctic”, which seemed a little cruel at the time.