Palace Cinema

In Shaftesbury, Dorset, the first film shows to be presented in a ‘formal’ sense were shown at converted shop premises on High Street. Known as the Picture Palace, these shows started around 1914-1915. According to ‘A Century of Cinema in Dorset’, when that book was published, in 1996, the premises were occupied by Granada Television. However, no specific address was provided, and it is not now known which premises the Picture Palace occupied. (If further information comes to light a separate Cinema Treasures entry could be prepared.)

The Picture Palace closed in the mid-1920’s, when a new cinema, the Palace Cinema, opened in the former Market House at the upper part of the High Street.

The proprietor was Percy Coaker. A former patron recalled that the projection room protruded into the foyer, and was accessed up vertical wooden steps. There was apparently no flue to clear the fumes from the carbon arc lamps, so the projection box door was left open - which was, of course, against all regulations. The patron added that the auditorium was notorious for its leaking roof, resulting in a frantic changing of seats in bad weather!

Despite what appears to have been a rather ‘basic’ operation, there was a pianist, Gilbert Mitchell, and the Palace Cinema did move into the talkie era, presenting its first sound film, “Hit the Deck”, starring Jack Oakie, in 1930. Since the late-1920’s, Percy Carter had been the proprietor.

However, and perhaps rather inevitably, the Palace Cinema closed down when the Savoy Cinema (see separate Cinema Treasures entry) opened in 1933.

As with the Picture Palace, the precise location of the Palace Cinema is not known, so it is not known whether the building has been demolished. A clue is that Shaftesbury Arts Centre, situated on Bell Street, which backs on to High Street, is said to occupy part of the Palace Cinema building. However, it is still not obvious where, on High Street, that building was.

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