Comber Cinema

Castle Street,
Comber, BT23 5DY

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Torchlight
Torchlight on June 21, 2024 at 4:23 am

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’).