Classic Stroud

In Stroud, Gloucestershire, the Gaumont Palace Theatre opened on 31st August 1935 with Charles Laughton in “Ruggles of Red Gap”, and attended by film stars Jessie Matthews & Sonnie Hale. It replaced the Palace Cinema on its site. It was built by the Albany Ward section of the Gaumont British Theatres(GB) company on a ‘semi-stadium’ plan with 994 seats. The low, flat-ceilinged auditorium was originally decorated with horizontal bands of blue silk in graded tones, broken by vertical fluted panels supporting wall mounted light fittings. Panelling, possibly in dark wood, replaced the silk below dado rail height. A geometric frieze ran around the heavy cornice, bowing to either side of the proscenium opening in which the main curtains picked up the horizontal banded pattern of the walls.

In common with the rest of the circuit the Stroud Gaumont lost its ‘Palace’ suffix. Later, in November 1962, it was renamed Odeon. It was taken over by Classic Cinemas in December 1967 and five years later sub-divided to provide bingo in the former front stalls and a small cinema in the rear tiers. This cinema lasted for six months. It was re-opened by Mecca when they took over the building in January 1974 but closed by the end of 1976. The sub-division was removed, Mecca sold it and it closed finally as Cascades on 22 July 1995. It was subsequently boarded up for many years. By July 2008 it was operating as a nightclub named Warehouse.

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