Warwick Cinema
18 Westley Road,
Birmingham,
B27 7UH
18 Westley Road,
Birmingham,
B27 7UH
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Additional Info
Architects: Horace G. Bradley
Functions: Bowling Alley, Laser Tag
Styles: Atmospheric
Previous Names: Warwick Super Cinema
Nearby Theaters
Located in the Acocks Green district, four miles southeast of Birmingham city centre. The Warwick Super Cinema was opened on 6th September 1929 with Colleen Moore in “Happiness Ahead” and Farrell MacDonald in “Riley the Cop”. It was operated by the Victoria Playhouse Group.
The auditorium was designed in an Atmospheric style, representing a setting in the grounds of Warwick Castle. Seating was provided in stalls and circle levels.
The Warwick Cinema was closed in 1962, and the stalls area was converted into a 10-pin bowling alley, with the circle operating as a 462 seat cinema, which opened as the Warwick Cinema on 24th March 1964 with Stanley Baker in “Father Came Too”. Unfortunately, all vestige of the Atmospheric style decorations had been removed. The cinema was closed in November 1991 with Kenneth Brannagh in “Dead Again”. It has been converted into a laser tag centre. The bowling alley continues to operate downstairs.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
The Warwick closed in November 1991. the last showing was “Dead Again” with Kenneth Branagh. The manager stood up in front of the house at the end and gave an emotional speech thanking everyone for their patronage. It was quite an emotional evening. I was in the audience that night.
I visited this theatre in the 70s with the then manager of the Regal Leamington Spa to see a demonstration film of the Dolby sound system [mono in those days]. I think it was called “The Quiet Revolution”.
@ Harryrig. I was present at that demonstration I ran the Capitol at Alum Rock. and “The Regal was a sister Theatre to Ours
The Vitoria Place House Group took over in the 1950’s From Hewitson’s of Smethwick when they put up a number of their cinemas up for auction One of the others was the Broadway Cinema Bristol Road which they sold off to Joseph Cohen of Jacey with 24 hours
Mike Blakemore’s comments are interesting, as the 1944 KYB give the owners as being the Broadway Cinema Circuit (N.C. Smith) General and Booking Manager B.H. Paul, booked at hall.
Well The Cinemas that Broadway Cinemas (Hewitson of Smethwick) had were taken over by “The Victoria Playhouse Group” Who as I write this still company own’s the site Bowling Alley and the Lazer downstairs. The Grandson runs the operation. Its a very complex situation of cinema ownership In many cases the left hand do’s not know what the right hand is doing. I was lucky as I knew most of the people involved. A lot of history of cinemas companies are myths. I have done a massive amount of digging to find out The Dirt..