Lost Buildings
Part J – Cinemas
In 2009 Bourne Hall Museum put together an exhibition of photos in Bourne Hall foyer, bringing back to life long-gone buildings of character that many argue should never have been demolished. Jeremy Harte, the museum curator, very kindly gave us access to the images which we have put on these pages.
Epsom’s first cinema, the Electric Theatre, opened in 1910 at the foot of Hook Road.
The Electric Theatre closed in 1923, and was empty until 1926 when it re-opened as the Pavilion Theatre, which was closed in 1929. After the Second World War the building was damaged by fire and in 1953 it was demolished.
The Electric Theatre/Pavilion during demolition.
In late 1910 or early 1911, the Electric Theatre was joined by the Cinema Royal at the east end of the High Street.
Another view of the Cinema Royal
The Granada Cinema opened as the Capitol in 1929, changing its name in 1947, and coming down in 1960.
The Odeon was built in 1937 (the year that Oscar Deutsch’s original cinema chain went public) where Chamberlain’s Bakery had previously stood, bringing a little Hollywood glamour to the north-west corner of Epsom High Street
The Odeon’s closure in 1971 followed a general fall in the fortunes of cinema.The building was demolished in 1972 and the site redeveloped.
John Hatchard Smith, Epsom resident and architect of London’s Trocadero, designed the Public Hall in 1883.
Serving the new communities of Stoneleigh and Ewell Court, the Rembrandt Cinema ran from 1938 to
1998 when it went out with a screening of The Last Picture Show.