Old Cinemas in Neath & District

In order to capture the cinema scene of years gone by, we include below some photograph found on the Internet.  We will replace these with better copies IF any are sent to us.

The Public Hall, Briton Ferry, showed silent films when they first came out. Later the venue became popular for amateur operatic shows.   It was later demolished and became a garage owned by Neath Car Sales.

Palace Kinema, Hunter Street, Briton Ferry.
Note the projection box - vertually a veranda
structure on the outside of the building.
Now replaced by houses on elevated ground as shown below:-

The Lodge Cinema Briton Ferry.
Bingo took over before it was replaced by flats -
see photo below.

The Lodge was built in the late 1930's and was a modern design compared to others in the area.  It was the first cinema in the district to show the film 'Gone With The Wind' which was made in 1939.  The film ran for several weeks with many people from other areas making their first visit to this lovely cinema.  Shown right lit up at night before the war years (1939-1945)
During the war it had an air raid siren on its roof for the town of Briton Ferry.

Windsor Cinema Neath - opened in May 1936.
Rather a sad view before it was replaced by
a block of flats see photo below.

The Windsor cinema was the last cinema in Neath to show films.

The Gnoll Cinema Neath which was converted to a garage and car showroom owned by Fletchers Car Sales before being taken over by Kwik Fit as pictured below.

The site of the Gnoll Cinema

The Empire Cinema
the only remaining cinema building left in Neath,
Used for Bingo until September 2009 but
reopened for a period with the last session
of Bingo taking place on St Valentine's Day 2010.

Demolishment commenced in June 2012.