Theatre Royal

The Vale of Glamorgan Council have approved plans to demolish the Theatre Royal for the building of retirement flats, despite the efforts of a local campaign to save and hopefully reopen the cinema building.

As part of a local initiative to raise support for re-opening the Theatre Royal,an exhibition about the cinema’s history was staged during April 2010.
Among the exhibits were posters, programme details and old correspondence, together with photographs of long-hidden parts of the building.
Press extracts included details of the building and opening in 1910 and subsequent changes of ownership from Arthur Carlton to O'Connor(1930)then the Barton Cinema Company ( part of an unspecified larger local cinema circuit)and the final owner, Brian Bull’s Circle Cinemas.
Also confirmed was the period of closure during World War II, from 17 May 1940 re-opening on 3 June 1944.
In the pre-1930 period, stage shows were an important part of the programme, and relics of this period were revealed in the currently closed building, early moving pictures on the “Universal Animatograph” were advertised in June 1911.
As was common at the time, a new “wide screen” was advertised in January 1954.
(The exhibition is on till the end of the month in the Pavilion in Victoria Park in the Cadoxton area of Barry.)

Re-opened June 1944, details in local press.