Cinema Royal, High Street, Epsom
This is one of the properties on the North Side of the East End of the High Street. These were all demolished by the start of World War 11 to enable the road to be widened – for more details see Epsom Heritage Page 5. The new properties were built in a completely different position so unlike the rest of this project it has been decided that it is pointless attempting to give a ‘Current Occupier’ as this would not be applicable.
A further complication is that the buildings were not numbered at the time and have therefore been presented under the owner’s name and as far as possible in sequential order from west to east in line with the 1911 Census and photographic evidence.
| Cinema Royal Picture Palace, High Street, Epsom (Site Of) |
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| Occupiers in 1911 | Cinema Royal Cinema |
| Details of 1911 Proprietor | I am not sure if this was actually open at the time of the 1911 census – sources suggest that it opened either in late 1910 or early 1911: it was built on the site of Chuter Brothers Builders’ Merchants and seated 200 picturegoers. The original proprietor was Edward Hammond Thompson, who lived in Merstham. The original building on this site was modified to the designs of Mr H. Farmer of Redhill. A refurbishment and enlargement in 1917 increased capacity to 650. It was again refurbished in 1929 and fitted out to show ‘the talkies’. The cinema closed in 1938, after being compulsorily purchased by the Council for a road widening scheme, but the intervention of the War put paid to that idea. Nothing was ever built on the site and currently all you can see of where it was is a brick wall and some trees beside the railway bridge in East Street.
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Cinema Royal.Go to the 1913 Map of Epsom High Street (East)