Former Cinema

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description on 28th April 2010
Description as July 2009 except that the front porch was demolished in April 2010.

Description on 2nd July 2009
A double-height corrugated metal, gable fronted fomer cinema, fronted by a single-storey classical porch, built c.1930 and located on the south side of Lower Strabane Road, Castlederg. Rectangular on plan.

Roof is pitched corrugated metal with timber bargeboards and half-round uPVC rainwater goods. The entrance block has a shallow pitched corrugated metal roof, concealed behind a parapet with breakfront pediment. Walling is corrugated metal to main hall, with the exception of north gable, which is metal sheeted. The porch is painted smooth-rendered with moulded plaster detailing. Windows are boarded or sheeted over throughout.

Principal road-facing gable faces north and is completely abutted at ground floor by the entrance porch. Exposed section of main hall has three equally spaced small square openings and a ventilation grille to apex. The porch consists of a central pedimented breakfront with round-headed entrance opening finished with moulded stucco archivolt and impost moulding, all flanked by quarter-engaged Doric pillasters on plinth blocks. There is a large window opening with moulded stucco surround at either side, and the pocrh is terminated at ends by further Doric pilasters. Cheeks each have a small timber casement window. The principal entrance is deeply recessed within the porch, and consists of a double glazed and panelled door (boarded). Four panelled doors lead to rooms at either side of the porch.

East elevation is blank with the exception of a pair of timber doors offset to left. Squares of corrugated metal suggest five former window openings, now blocked.

Rear gable is abutted by a lean-to addition on concrete block plinth.

West elevation is as east, with small glazed aperture at extreme north end.

Road-fronted, with the porch accessed directly from the pavement, the hall is flanked by twentieth-century dwellings. Modern boundary walls delineate the site and perimeters are grassed and overgrown.

Roof: Pitched corrugated metal
Walling: Corrugated metal with smooth-rendered porch
Windows: Boarded over
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

The cinema is first shown on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1939, uncaptioned.

Its first appearance in valuation records is in 1934. It is described as a ‘cinema’ and the proprietor is Ernest S. E. Stewart who leases the building from S. Gailey. The cinema is valued at £38, later raised to £40 and has accommodation for 335 persons. There is a frontage of 30 ft and the building is constructed entirely of corrugated iron, lined with beaverboard. A plan is given showing an engine room behind the cinema containing a 14 HP oil engine. Ticket prices are 6d, 9d, 1s and 1s.3d. The valuer comments, “Seating capacity 306. One house a night, though when there is a specially good film there are two houses. Average takings a night are £4 of which about £1 is profit.” In 1935 the proprietor appeals the valuation, describing his premises as a ‘Kinematograph Theatre’. The valuer comments, “Contract price of building in 1933 was £478. Picture house is not well patronised. Total turnover from 1st April 1934 to 1st April 1935 was £1162.13s.9d, there being only one full year available. Cost of renting films about £600 per annum leaving say £600 to cover running costs, pay wages of three attendants, two operators, one ticket clerk and...manager, this being the minimum staff necessary.” The valuers, feeling that the cinema was struggling at this time, reduced the valuation to £30.

However, a local man, Tommy Maguire, a former worker at the Spamount Woollen Mill, recalls the popularity of Castlederg cinema, “In the 60’s we had a cinema here in Castlederg and most of my friends and workers in the mill would have visited the cinema 3 or 4 times a week. Unlike now where a film runs for almost a month, sometimes more, there were 4 different films on at the local cinema during the week. They usually ran Monday, Tuesday then changed Wednesday, Thursday, then changed Friday, Saturday and then in later years there came a Sunday film” (www.storymakers.co.uk). “For years the only place of entertainment was the local cinema. We liked almost everything, but our favourites far and away were the Westerns.” His cinema visits inspired him to make his own Western film, “The Gunhawks” using local people as cast members, which still receives occasional showings (Sunday Mirror, 31st May 1998).
Michael Open has set out some of the history of cinema building in Belfast, and this can be taken to be suggestive of the development of cinema across the province. In 1896, several months after the first British ‘Cinematographe’ screenings in London, the Lumiere Cinematographe arrived in Belfast. Over the ensuing decade film exhibition grew steadily in frequency and in the number of venues, but these were largely buildings, such as variety halls, that were adapted to show films, rather than purpose-built cinemas. (Open, p.1)
“Towards the end of the first decade of the century various entrepreneurs started to build and convert structures specifically for cinema exhibition.” 1910 marked the beginning of a cinema boom in Belfast, with six opening in six months. “By the beginning of 1914 there were twelve cinemas.” (p.3-4) This initial boom was no doubt encouraged by the 1909 Cinematograph Act which required all cinemas to be issued with licences from their local authority to ensure that buildings complied with fire regulations. (McIlroy, p.5)

Sound first came to Northern Ireland in 1929 with Al Jolson in ‘The Singing Fool’ and by 1931 most of the cinemas in Belfast had converted to sound. In 1933 a second expansion of cinema provision began and by 1937 sixteen new cinemas had opened (p.5-7). It would appear that the cinema in Castlederg formed part of this second wave of cinema building .

The late forties and early fifties represented a boom time for cinema with ticket sales at their peak. However, with the coming of television a gradual decline began in the sixties and cinemas started to close (p.9-13)
References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/16/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map (1939)
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/35/6A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1924)
3. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/1D/2 – Valuers’ RV Binder (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

1. McIlroy, B “Irish Cinema: An Illustrated History”, Dun Laoghaire: Anna Livia Press, 1988
2. Open, M “Fading Lights Silver Screens: A History of Belfast Cinemas”, Antrim: Greystone Books, 1985
3. www.storymakers.co.uk
4. Sunday Mirror 31st May 1998

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The former cinema at Castlederg is a double-height structure of corrugated metal, which was fronted by a classically detailed rendered entrance porch and dating from c.1930 (demolished in April 2010). The structure is of interest as an early example of the use of corrugated metal, common in the early twentieth-century as a cheap solution to materials and labour shortages. The building has social significance within the local community, and is of historic interest both locally and in the development of cimemas within N Ireland. Unfortunately its integrity and architectural interest was diminished when the porch was demolished.