Roxy Cinema

The Coronation Picture Palace opened on June 27th 1911 in the Bournemouth suburb of Springbourne and actually had a very big catchement area as it was surrounded by residential properties not least, the upmarket area of Queens Park. The name was changed to Roxy in 1936 and it was not taken over by Harry Mears until 1940. In 1944 it was being operated by West’s Pictures whose town centre cinema had been destroyed by enemy action.Unfortunately the Roxy took a hit on the 24th April of that year and remained derelict until 1950 when wartime building restrictions were lifted.It reopened on March 9th. 1950 with the Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby film ‘Blue Skys’ plus Charlie Ruggles in ‘Night Work’. One custom which carried on down the years allowed pensioners to see a show at certain times on presentation of their pension book. The cinema lasted until 25th August 1963 when the final programme consisted of ‘Blind Date’, the Joseph Losey thriller starring Stanley Baker and Hardy Kruger. Changing to bingo gave the building a new lease of life until 1994.During this time the interior was surprisingly unaltered the balcony retaining its cinema seats and the projection ports very much in evidence.The Westar projectors, installed in 1950,had been removed to the Continental cinema in nearby Winton. Unfortunate alterations to both the interior and exterior of the building took place during its conversion into a photographic laboratory, this included a large access doorway with roller shutters at the screen end of the building.