Plaza Cinema

In Ilminster, Somerset, it is not known when the Plaza Cinema opened. There is no entry for the town in the 1914 Kinematograph Year Book, but there are entries for a Theatre Cinema in the 1923 edition and an Electric Cinema in 1928. No addresses were provided. These could have been earlier incarnations of the Plaza Cinema; however, there is a gap in the Kinematograph Year Book entries which suggests that the earlier cinema closed in the late-1920’s and the Plaza Cinema didn’t open until the early-1930-s. Also, the early cinema had been operated by George Gange and G. H. Montacute, while the Plaza Cinema was run by Rowland Reeves, though Mr Reeves could easily have acquired the existing cinema and closed it while it was refurbished and redecorated. But clearly there is further research to be done.

The auditorium (of the Plaza Cinema, at least) utilised an existing brick and stone hall off Silver Street, which proved ideal for cinema conversion due to the availability of side emergency exits and the easy provision of a projection box. The proscenium was about 14ft wide; there was no stage.

CinemaScope was never installed. Indeed, the Plaza Cinema closed in the late-1950’s.

The auditorium became a furniture showroom for R. A. Dyer, whose shop fronted onto the street. The street frontage was subsequently home to Sweet Surprise café; it is not known what the former auditorium is used for.

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