Pavilion Cinema
12 Avebury Avenue,
Tonbridge,
TN9 1TF
12 Avebury Avenue,
Tonbridge,
TN9 1TF
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: London and Provincial Cinemas Ltd.
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?).
By 1944 it had been reopened and was operated by the London and Provincial Cinemas Ltd. 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.