New Palace Cinema

In Tetbury, Gloucestershire, it is not known when the New Palace Cinema first opened. It was not listed in the 1914 Kinematograph Year Book, but it is in the 1923 edition, the next I have access to. That entry refers to it simply as the Cinema, as does the entry in the 1929 edition. That latter edition shows no other information apart from the cinema’s name, so it might not have been operating at that time.

The 1931 edition has a full entry. By that time, it had been named the Palace Cinema. It was owned by G. Adams, whose address was given as the White Hart Hotel, Tetbury (which, renamed the Snooty Fox, still stands next to the site of the cinema). That entry recorded that there was a “Dance Hall attached”.

That entry related to 1930. A brief newspaper report, most likely from the Kine Weekly, dated 24th July 1931, held in the Archives of the Cinema Theatre Association, states that “Messrs. Holborow, builders, of Tetbury, are to undertake the rebuilding of the Palace Cinema, which was recently gutted by fire”.

The 1935 edition records the proscenium was 16ft wide. A Marshall sound system had been installed.

1. Adams remained the proprietor until the 1938 edition of the Kinematograph Year Book, after which A. C. Myhill took over. He appears to have carried out some refurbishment and/or upgrading (the proscenium was almost doubled in width, to 30ft) and he duly renamed it the New Palace Cinema.

2. 1. Mott, of Malmesbury, then acquired the cinema in the early-1950’s, and ran it until it closed, in the early-1960’s. (Full details were shown in the Kinematograph Year Books until 1961: From 1962 to 1967, the final entry, only the owner was listed, indicating the cinema was closed.)

It is not known what use, if any, the building went into, but it burnt down over the weekend of 21st to 22nd April 1979.

Chipping Court Shopping Mall was built on the site. Although a complete new build, the corner entrance to the cinema, which was slightly ‘detached’ from the auditorium, and therefore survived the fire, is still visible.

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