Popular Cinema
Bridge End, Lower Newtownards Road,
Belfast,
BT5
Bridge End, Lower Newtownards Road,
Belfast,
BT5
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Popular Picture Theatre
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The original Popular Picture Theatre was opened on 30th October 1917 by W. J. Hogan, who also owned the Clonard Cinema and the Savoy Cinema. Seating was in stalls and circle. In the silent days a small orchestra, including a long-haired violinist nicknamed ‘The Mad Fiddler’, accompanied the films.
The cinema was badly damaged in the Easter Blitz of 1941, but the auditorium was rebuilt and it reopened as the Popular Cinema in 1947 with “The Last of the Mohicans” (from 1936, giving an indication of the difficulty independents faced in obtaining up to date films) as the city’s first ‘new’ post-war cinema. The Popular Cinema closed in January 1962 and its site is now part of the Short Strand housing estate.
Contributed by
David Simpson
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Opened 30 October 1917, closed January 1962