Regal Cinema

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Uploaded on: January 13, 2023

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Photograph of the front entrance taken in 1935 prior to the official opening. The Regal Redruth was the first of a trio of cinemas being built to open on 2nd December 1935 with the comedy film ‘The Private Secretary’ starring Edward Horton, who ironically appeared in the opening film ‘Top Hat’ at the Plaza Truro two months later. These cinemas were built by William Mumford who had set up his circuit, Sound & Movement Cinemas Ltd Plymouth. Mumford instructed the well known firm of architects William Henry Watkins of Bristol to build him three cinemas in Cornwall. Watkins office engaged a young Australian Modernist Architect Rex Smith to design and build these cinemas, which Smith completed within eighteen months. Following the opening of the Regal, was the Plaza Truro opening February 1936 and the Kings Camborne April 1936. The energetic Smith was also a draughtsman and artist, although his Art Deco interior for the Regal was not as stylish as that of the Plaza Truro, he excelled with his outstanding Art Deco design for the exterior of the Regal. Although these 1935 photographs are of poor quality they still give a view of the past as do those for the Plaza Truro. Architect Rex Smith’s signed perspective designs for the Plaza give us a glimpse of his standards.

Ron Knee