Been but Not Quite Gone – Cinemas

Been but Not Quite Gone

A Look at our Cinema Heritage by David Barber & Rob Marchant

Copyright Portsmouth City Council, History Centre, Central Library

For the typical PPA member, a visit to the cinema these days involves a trip to one of the three multiplexes in and around the city at Port Solent, Gunwharf Quays or at Fareham. However, back in 1920 when the PPA was founded it was a very different story, with single screen cinemas dotted across the city and surrounding towns, and with more being added at a rapid pace as the golden age of cinema got into full swing.

In less than a mile and a half, between Stubbington Avenue and Fratton Bridge, there were six cinemas - the Odeon, the Regent (later the Gaumont), the Majestic, the Shaftesbury, the Rex and the Troxy. In addition, just across the bridge there was the Plaza (also later a Gaumont) at Bradford Junction.

Of that group, the Troxy on Fratton Road, close to the junction with Arundel Street, was the first in the city to show a widescreen epic, while the Art Deco Odeon at North End was the last traditional cinema in the city to close, back in 2008.

In an era when the cinema operators were all trying to outdo each other for the grandest and plushest of facilities, the Majestic in Kingston Road very much lived up to its name!

Opened in 1921, the Majestic cost £50,000 to build and had over a thousand seats. Its interior was very lavish, with ornate plasterwork on the walls and ceiling. With the addition of sound in 1928, its fine orchestra for the silent films was made redundant.

The colours of the auditorium were a honey or biscuit shade, seats of olivegreen velvet and a reddish-brown shade carpet. It boasted theatre-type boxes linked to the horseshoe-shaped circle. Each side had Doric pillars, lit from behind by pink lamps, while the stage curtains of gold satin swag were ruched at the top. There were also foot and top lights of red, green and blue. Twin advert clocks were each side of the stage, lit orange with an advert for Youngers Victory Ales. The main house lights up in the ceiling were of the jelly mould style shades, whilst the wall lights were crossed flaming torches lit by pink bulbs under the flame glass shades.

There were many other cinemas across the city, including the Essoldo, Eastney; Odeon (later the Salon) Southsea; Gaiety, Southsea; Apollo (later the Essoldo), Albert Road; ABC Victoria Hall, Hampshire Terrace; Palace, Guildhall Walk; Classic, Commercial Road; ABC Savoy, Commercial Road; Forum, Stamshaw Road; Tivoli, Copnor Road; Queens, Queen Street; Essoldo (later the Carlton) and the Ambassador (later the Odeon), Cosham.

The outlying towns also had their picture palaces, including the Ritz and Criterion in Gosport, Embassy and Savoy in Fareham and the Empire in Havant.

Many of the above-named cinemas are long demolished and the sites of supermarkets or flats, while others have survived as bingo halls or in other commercial uses, and the Plaza at Bradford Junction is now a mosque. Sadly, the once splendid Majestic lies closed, unloved and semi-derelict. A sad reminder of a bygone age.

Copyright Portsmouth City Council, History Centre, Central Library