Cosy Cinema

In 1911, architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes was asked to design a cinema in an old disused chapel building off of Conway Road. The site was difficult to say the least with the Conway Road frontage being taken up by shops and offices and the only access through a passageway between two of the shops.

The result was a small (300 seater) cinema with the screen above the entrance at the Conway Road end of the venue. The Colwyn Bay Cinema was opened on 22nd December 1911. The owner was Mr. Watson Hartley who installed his brother Mr.J. Hartley as manager running two shows a night with daily matinees and two changes of programme per week at prices of 2d to 1/-.

The cinema was closed at the end of the 1926 summer season, when prices were 4d, 6d, 9d and 1/-. In 1927 it was renamed Cosy Cinema when Cambrian and Border Cinemas took over ownership and installed Mr Brook Richards (a popular entertainer of the time on the BBC 2L0 Radio Station) as manager. He introduced the "Cosy Orchestra" to accompany the silent films and shows were now continuous from 2.30pm daily at 6d, 1/-, and 1/6d. In 1930 a Butchers Electro Cord Sound system was installed to see the venue into the sound era. This must have proved less than satisfactory as it was replaced the following year with a Western Electric Sound system.

In 1937 the venue was taken over by Cosy Cinema (Colwyn Bay) Ltd., a company formed by M.A. Kenyon (who was also owner of the Princess Cinema at the time) and they successfully saw the venue through the war years.

In 1954, faced with the cost of installing CinemaScope, they chose instead to close the Cosy Cinema, stating it was economically unviable. It closed on 28th May 1955 with William Lundigan in “The White Orchid” & Clifford Evans in “The Diamond Expert”. The premises were soon taken for retail use, in which guise (a hardware shop Matthew & Son) it remains today.

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