Palace Cinema
75 Tredegar Street,
Risca,
NP11 6BW
75 Tredegar Street,
Risca,
NP11 6BW
1 person
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The town of Risca is sometimes listed in the 1930’s as being Monmouthshire in England, but due to boundry changes it is now definitely in Wales, located near to the south Wales town of Newport, Gwent.
The Palace Cinema opened in 1912 with a seating capacity given as 1,000. Many patrons would have been squeezed onto long benches to give this capacity. The cinema has a ornamented facade, with a central entrance, above which is a small round window surounded by ornamental swags. The interior was said to be ‘rather plain’ except for painted walls, possibly stencil patterned. It was used as a cine-variety house from the beginning and has a 30 feet wide proscenium and a 10 feet deep stage. With normal cinema seating installed by the 1930’s, the capacity was given as 800.
The Palace Cinema was always an independently operated cinema, and continued serving the town until 1965 when it was closed. It became a bingo club for a short period of time, but that was not too successful and the building has been closed and unused for many years. In recent years it has been converted into a library and offices for the local council.
The former Palace Cinema is designated a Grade II Listed building. In January 2006 a planning application was forwarded to the Ancient Monuments Society which proposed demolition of the building, retaining just the facade.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
By August 2016 (see my photos) the Palace had been converted into a library and Customer Services for Caerphilly County Borough Council. The frontage had been cleaned and restored, but it was unclear how much of the auditorium block survived, as a One Stop convenience store had been built to the left of the Palace, obscuring the rear of the former cinema.