Chelsea Theatre
178 Flinders Street,
Melbourne,
VIC
3000
178 Flinders Street,
Melbourne,
VIC
3000
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Held an reopening on September 17th, 1932 as “Melbourne’s All British Theatre” along with the Times Theatrette.
This theatre had the World premiere of the Australian movie “Snapshot”.
Sadly there seems to be no photograph of the magnificent deeply curved 70mm screen.
The Chelsea Theatre opened on the 10th of June 1960 with “Porgy And Bess” screening in 70mm. The Chelsea Theatre had a seating capacity of 1196 and went on to have long seasons with “Spartacus” “Lawrence Of Arabia”, “ 55 Days At Peking” and “Airport”. Many other top 35mm and 70mm films screened at the Chelsea over the years. The Chelsea Theatre for many years was Greater Union’s number one theatre in Melbourne. The final programme at the Chelsea Theatre was a Clint Eastwood double feature “The Gauntlet” and “The Enforcer” both revivals.
Trevor Walters
There was also a second projection room, located at the back of the dress circle of the three-tier theatre structure. It survived as a plant room until the demolition of the building. The projection ports were still in place, and looked out into the void under the balcony seating. The third and final projection room was at the back of the circle in the two-tier (1936) structure. As the building was demolished, wall murals depicting shipping scenes were revealed on the outer walls of the auditorium, apparently dating from the pre 1936 structure. The office areas at the front of the building housed “Australasian Films” theatre supplies and “16 Millimetre” 16mm film distributors, among other organisations.
The full address is 178 Flinders Street and I should have mentioned that the original projection room was located in the stalls underneath the stairs leading to the upper levels.