Tivoli Theatre

hi i worked in this cinema in pontarddulais for 3 years with the last owner and his wife witch i enjoyed i still can remember going up the steps seeing the posters on the right and left of the steps walking throe the big doors and seeing the kiosk in front of you with the smile of a old lady welcoming you in not many teeth left tho she made me smile tho just on the left of the kiosk there was some concrete spiral steers going up to the balcony with beautiful red and brown seats and a huge beautiful sealing up there you cold see all the other people down on the bottom floor just on the other side was the projection room i remember the big projectors up there and a big man in there cant remember his name. down the bottom of the steps just by two small brown doors you went into the main room it was huge with all the red and brown seats there and right down the bottom of the room was the stage and the big screen it was fantastic and on the right of the seats was the fire exit it was a shame that a young boy broke in and set fire to it and he was only 9. i remember when it burnt down i was opposite in a pub called the sheaf i have lived in pontarddulais for 49 years i went there with my dad as a young boy and went there with my mum to play bingo so sad to see old buildings going to waste and being puled down to make room for spar shops and flats after the cinema went there was nothing left to go to for the children of pontarddulais like now everything is going so sad yours peter lewis

.uk

Does anyone have any pictures of the Tivoli Picture Theatre? I am in contact with the last remaining member of the Saunders family who ran the cinema. I am sure that Nancy would be most appreciative if you could any supply any.

The Tivoli Mumbles is still standing in pretty good condition. It is, unfortunatly an amusement arcade now and has been for decades

KenRoe;
The Tivoli was the former Memorial and Welfare Hall. The “committee” gave up running it as they could not make it pay it’s way, you will know what “committees” of this type are like. They closed and more or else abandoned the building. Dont ask me why I did it but I managed to get hold of building. Gave it a good cleaning, fix the heating and replaced the projectors and fitted a new sound system and moved the stage lighting console to the projection box and reopened it and ran it as hobby. Will I was running it it did not make a profit, not that it was meant to. I seat prices for the films was £1, more for live performances. I did recover the cost of reopening it

I hope you do not mind me correcting you, but the as the last owner/operator of the Tivoli Threatre Pontarddullias, which I ran as a hobby on bussiness lines in my retirement for many years. The Tivoli Theatre Pontarddullias and the Tivoli Mumbles which as been used as an amusement centre for many years now are not one in the same. The name Tivoli was used by a good many cinemas/threatres in that area at the same time, so it is easy to make a mistake. As I have said I was the last owner/operator of this theatre and kept it running on a combination of, second run films, live performances, bingo and lettings of the rehearsal rooms. This threatre was subject to a three way cross bar on first ran films, between Swansea, Llanelli and Carmarthen. I closed the threatre down after the local council opened a brand new 500 threatre just two miles away.