Comber Cinema
Castle Street,
Comber,
BT23 5DY
Castle Street,
Comber,
BT23 5DY
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The Comber Cinema opened on 9th December 1957 with June Allyson in “Interlude” and had stalls and balcony. It was built on the site of the ‘Old House’ immediately next door to the old Picture House which was situated in the stables. The ceremony was by the Rt. Hon. J.L. Andrews with proceeds going to the Comber Coal Fund for the elderly. It was fire-bombed in October 1977 along with other cinemas in the province.
It closed on 27th October 1984 with Val Kilmer in “Top Secret” and was demolished in June 1985, having been sold to the Wellworths chain of stores. Presumably it erected a store afterwards but the site is now occupied by Super Valu.
Contributed by
Gavin McGrath
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
It’s been mentioned elsewhere that the ‘Old House’ Cinema opened in the second week of January 1934. It was a conversion of part of the ‘Old House’ in Castle Street, built in 1744 by John Andrews. The operator was William McDonald who had been involved with two other Co.Down cinemas, in Holywood and Killyleagh. It’s named as the Picture House in the K.Y.B. (1935). The K.Y.B. (1937) shows the proprietor as Comber Picture House Ltd. There was seating for 330, and films were shown once nightly, twice on Saturday. The KYB (1940) mentions 300 seats and a Lodge sound system.
The proprietor of the new cinema (opened 1957) was Solar Cinemas of Belfast. Solar, around the same time, had also acquired the ‘Old House’ cinema next door and, for a time, both cinemas operated side-by-side. With two films each night, locals had a choice of 12 films every week. And just to be pedantic, the current occupier of the site is SuperValu (Valu being spelt without an ‘e’).