As part of this year’s Salisbury History Festival, Frogg Moody and Matt Pike led a guided walk which charted the history of cinema in Salisbury.
The walk started at the building which was once the Odeon Cinema in Fisherton Street. The cinema was constructed in 1936 from a design by William Sidney Trent and boasted an attractive Art Deco frontage framed by twin brick pillars topped with ornate towers.
The Odeon officially closed in December 1961 and was purchased by the City of New Sarum for conversion into a multi-purpose City Hall.
The walk continued to the Odeon Cinema in the New Canal. The Hall of John Halle was chosen to be the grand entrance to a new cinema which was built in the Tudor style behind the medieval Hall.
On September 7, 1931 the cinema opened and the Journal estimated that nearly 5,000 people visited the theatre during the day.
The final cinema to be visited was the new Everyman Cinema located in Endless Street. The building was originally established as the Regal Cinema and officially opened on February 22, 1937 where a full house of 1,608 patrons attended on the opening to see the latest Shirley Temple film, Captain January.
The Regal Cinema continued until 1969 after which it became a Bingo Hall.
But now the old Regal cinema has come a full circle and is looking fabulous in the process. Everyone on the walk agreed - it is a pleasure to see that the Regal has returned to its original purpose.
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