The old Coronation Cinema

The site of the former Coronation Cinema

Photo by Peter Crowhurst

Recently Redhill Motors

By Peter Crowhurst, North Laine resident

The new office building opposite the entrance to the Swimming Pool car park was built on the site of the Coronation Cinema that opened in 1911. Later it became the New Coronation, the Troxy and the Rex News Theatre, which closed in 1939. For many years the building was home to Redhill Motors.

A welcome break for the poor

In Little to Spare and Nothing to Waste, Robert Hayward describes how a visit to the Coronation made a welcome break for the poor at a weekend. He writes that the "balcony was minuscule, the stalls were long wooden forms and into these boys and girls packed tight on a Saturday morning. Before the performance the lady pianist would walk down the aisle getting the kids to sing the current hit tune."