Castle Cinema
Castle Building,
1 Worcester Place,
Swansea,
SA1 1AQ
Castle Building,
1 Worcester Place,
Swansea,
SA1 1AQ
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Firms: C.S. Thomas, Meager & Jones
Functions: Laser Tag
Styles: Art Deco
Previous Names: Film Centre
Nearby Theaters
The Castle Cinema is located in the city centre of Swansea, right next door to the castle remains, and it opened on 14th December 1913. A very deep cinema with a small circle that didn’t overhang with maybe just five or six rows in it. The last two rows in the stalls had double ‘love seats’. Showed soft-core porn starting in the 1960’s and into the 1970’s when it was re-named Film Centre and then suddenly started getting major movies like “Grease”, “ET” and “Batman” on first run status.
It closed very suddenly on 31st October 1991 and became a Lazer Zone. It is under immediate threat of demolition. Very beautiful facade in its heyday though very run down now.
The building is Grade II Listed.
Contributed by
Ian Howells
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
In the late 1940s- early 1950s I visited this hall , mainly on Friday or Saturday nights, with various members my family.I can readily recall my maternal grandmother (1881-1968) telling me that this was not the first cinema to exist on this site.
She often talked about a small Bioscope hall that existed on the Castle Cinema site from around 1903.The entrance was apparently in Worcester Place. Her story went on to relate that the Bioscope Cinema was demolished some time around 1911 and replaced by the present Castle Cinema circa 1912. I would be please to hear from any Swansea cinema buff who can confirm confirm this fact?
Another internal photo of the Castle:–
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/5066662653/
I recently bluffed my way to the rear of the stalls of the Castle, now Lazerzone. Shocking! There is nothing left of the auditorium. Every single thing has been removed and the whole auditorium is a 3 level theme park. The main foyer entrance has all been destroyed together with the old box office. The two staircases to the circle area that were either side of the box office are gone too. I thought this was a listed building!!! I read somewhere that the owners were in trouble with the local council for the removal of the box office.
Its absolutely rediculous isnt it! I couldnt believe my eyes when I first saw the original foyer photographs.
Photo of the previously mentioned side staircases in the foyer as they were in 1989:–
CASTLE FOYER
The 1966 BBC television play “Where the buffalo roam”, written by Dennis Potter and starring a young Hywel Bennett, featured a scene at the entrance to the Castle. Bennett’s young character was admiring and fantasising about cowboy films, stills of which were on display at the cinema.
The Castle opened about 1913 and was renamed the Filmcenta in 1982. I believe its last film was Doc Hollywood so probably closed about 1991. One photograph shows it as a children’s adventure playground before Lazerzone.
Confirmed opening and closing dates are 14.12.13 and 31.10.91
After years of being under threat of demolition, though a listed building with some structural problems, a potentially viable plan to create a block of student flats and retail units and retaining a number of external features of the Castle Cinema has been announced.
It’s maybe getting a new life in 2023. Proposed redevelopment of the Former Castle Cinema to provide a mixed use scheme of commercial units and Residential Apartments consisting of refurbishment, extension and associated works
https://www.asbriplanning.co.uk/statutory-pre-application-consultation/former-castle-cinema-swansea/