Ritz Cinema
York Road,
Southwold,
IP18 6AN
York Road,
Southwold,
IP18 6AN
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Assembly Rooms, Electric Picture Palace, Cinema
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In Southwold, on the Suffolk coast, public meetings, plays and other events were held in the Assembly Rooms at the start of the 1900’s. The building was owned by local man Stanley Ransome. In August 1912 a screen with rounded corners was painted on the back wall and projection apparatus installed: the town had its first cinema, the Electric Picture Palace. Tickets were one shilling, 6d and 3d.
On 11th October 1921, following the death of Stanley Ransome, it was taken over by Lily Crick. James Blythe, her 20-year-old son from a previous marriage, became manager. Her husband, George Crick, was chief engineer at Southwold Gas Works. She took on pianist Madame J. Kenyon as musical director, and a violinist.
The Cinema, as it later became known, was also used for events such as dinners. The ‘multi-purpose’ auditorium was enlarged in 1927, with a sprung dance floor being installed, a larger screen and raked seating (presumably at the rear) for about 500.
At the end of summer 1930, the Cinema reported that “At enormous cost, the Western Electric System of Sound Reproduction has been installed”. It showed the revue “Elstree Calling”, and announced that “children in arms will not be admitted, as SILENCE MUST BE ENFORCED when the programme is being shown”!
A 1937 letter from Lily Crick cited some of the annual overheads: Rates were £60. Electric light, gas and coke were £182. Advertising, posters and printing came to £200. Wages totalled £1,000. Against this, average net weekly takings were between £80 and £90.
After her death in 1942, James ran the cinema for the next 17 years (presumably still as manager; the 1953 Kine Year Book, which lists 400 seats, records George Crick as managing director of Cinema (Southwold) Ltd). It was then leased to cinema company managing director Norman Hope-Bell (an ex-assistant director at Twickenham Film Studios and producer of films such as 1937’s “Old Mother Riley”, starring Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane).
He was apparently only there for a very short time, as he left in 1960. A Mr Burgess took over, rechristened it the Ritz Cinema and installed CinemaScope. But his efforts were to no avail, and film presentations ended with the comedy/drama “Trial and Error”, starring Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough (released in September 1962). The business plugged away, with dances and bingo, but, in October 1963, Mr Burgess called it a day.
The building became a furniture warehouse, then home to a building company, before it was knocked down in the early-1980’s. A doctors’ surgery went up, later replaced by flats, Orwell Court.
(Source: ‘Southwold Electric Picture Palace’ by David Cleveland.)
Contributed by
David Simpson
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
Interesting write up of the Ritz Southwold. I knew the Crick family in Southwold. Charlie Crick who I think was son of George, Charlie also had a son named Peter Crick. As a young boy I often visited Southwold as I had relatives there. I remember Charlie Crick taking me to the old Gasworks before it closed down. I also have seen films at the old Southwold Cinema the Ritz. I remember the seats at the front were wooden benches. It was a very basic interior.