Pavilion Cinema
12 Avebury Avenue,
Tonbridge,
TN9 1TF
12 Avebury Avenue,
Tonbridge,
TN9 1TF
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Additional Info
Previous Names: New Theatre
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Located in Tonbridge, Kent on the corner of Avebury Avenue and River Lawn Road, opposite the Playhouse. The 700-seat New Theatre was a conversion of a former warehouse. It was opened on 13th June 1921. It was closed on 31st August 1929 to be equipped with a Western Electric(WE) sound system and re-opened as the Pavilion Cinema on 28th October 1929 with Al Jolson in “The Singing Fool”. The seating capacity was reduced to 656 with 416-seats in the stalls and 240-seats in the circle. The Pavilion Cinema was closed on 29th March 1941 with Joan Bennett in “The Man I Married”.
It was taken over by the Ministry of Defence for wartime use (possibly storage?). Around 1957 the building was converted into a postal sorting office. After the post office moved out the building stood derelict for many years and was eventually demolished and a Sainsbury’s supermarket was built on the site. They have since moved on and that building is now a gymnasium named Pure Gym Local.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
In 1941 the Ministry of Supply took over the premises (presumably for wartime purposes such as storage, as happened elsewhere). In 1949 the local paper carried a rumour of it reopening as a cinema, but the Ministry of Works extended the lease and repurposed it for the GPO around 1957. After years of standing derelict, a branch of Sainsbury’s was built on the site and opened in December 1969. It closed in January 1982. Google Streetview now (2022) shows a gym in the former supermarket building.