The Carlton cinema on Oxford Street, Swansea’s favorite ‘flea pit’, had been struggling for many years as had the slightly better kept, Castle Cinema at the bottom of High Street.
After a year or two of closure the Castle reopened as a cinema and was renamed The Filmcenta, even though the people of Swansea to this day have always fondly called it The Castle!  It remained a cinema until around the mid 1980’s when it suddenly closed and became a ‘LazerZone’ theme park. Thanks to this pastimes popularity at least the building is still here but sadly with no hope of ever showing a film again and is in a pretty sad state of disrepair. Parts of the listed building have been removed illegally already!

     The Carlton was literally closed with no notice overnight, by Rank, on 29th October 1977. It lay closed and rotting for almost 30 years until Waterstones bookshops bought the building. They demolished the crumbling auditorium but kept, and beautifully restored, the front of house cafe/restaurant which had closed way back in the early 60s. The Carlton’s front is arguably one of the grandest buildings still standing in the city centre! From its opening in 1914 to the early 1960’s the Carlton Cine Lux Cafe was a major meeting place for the well to do of Swansea, a truly grand place to meet. Today, 50 years after closing and thanks to Waterstones it is again a stunning place to sit and have a coffee.
     

     The Elysium Cinema on High St had closed for business way back in 1960.

     Looking at the fate of the above buildings, lets do all thats possible to protect the glorious Albert Hall.

    The most important thing for us to remember here is that the Albert Hall is of immense architectural importance from the Victorian era, inside and out.
    Despite their glorious exteriors, The Castle, The Carlton and, to some extent, The Plaza, all had pretty bland, uninteresting auditoriums, commonly known in the cinema industry as black boxes. The Castle and The Carlton lost their once elegant auditoriums in the 1960s when pleated cloth was favored along the walls of every cinema in the country! The Plaza was neglected by its owners in its final years, its notable art deco auditorium left to go beyond repair.

    None of these cinemas had the Victorian glory of the Albert Hall even though the Albert's auditorium was painted entirely black, its charm barely visible in the flickering of an usherettes torch, no one would doubt its glory.

Castle Cinema The Castle as it is today, in a very sorry looking state as a lazer theme park.	The Carlton The Carlton as it is today, a Waterstones bookshop.
Castle Cinema View from the very shallow circle out into the 1962 auditorium.	Carlton Cinema The Carlton cafe