Rialto Picture Playhouse
St George's Road,
Bolton,
BL1 2ED
St George's Road,
Bolton,
BL1 2ED
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Star Cinemas
Architects: T.E. Smith
Firms: T. Smith & Son
Previous Names: Temperance Hall
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According to The Bolton News “The silver screen was first brought to Bolton by Mr Fenton Cross at the end of the 19th century, showing “living pictures” at the Temperance Hall, later the Rialto Cinema, on St George’s Road.” Kinematograph Year Book for 1914 lists 8 cinemas in Bolton; but “Temperance Hall” is the sum total for this venue.
There was a serious fire around 1926. It was rebuilt in 1927 to the plans of architectural firm T. Smith & Son and reopened as the Rialto Picture Playhouse, operated by Rialto (Bolton) Ltd. The cinema supplement to the Architects' Journal 13th November 1929 has an advert for safety electrical wiring which shows the interior of the Rialto: gutted by fire; and rebuilt.-
Leslie Halliwell’s autobiographical book ‘Seats In All Parts’ describes the Rialto Picture Playhouse in the chapter: ‘Around The Fleapits With A Hammer’. “The Rialto Picture Playhouse advertised itself as ‘the cinema where you meet your friends’… was owned by the same family as the Queen’s … thrived on second features and ‘B’s, often series and always in double-bills, such films being usually short enough to pack two plus the news into a programme which ran no more than two hours and ten minutes … (the) booking policy was aimed at the undiscriminating”.
The building was (I think I recall) on bingo in the late-1970’s. It has been demolished and a modern ‘Holiday Inn’ building stands on the site.
Contributed by
H J Hill
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Leslie Halliwell in ‘Seats In All Parts’, page 314 describing his return to Bolton “in the 1980s” has this: “The Rialto had at some fairly recent date become the Apollo, but was now firmly shuttered”.
The Rialto was NOT demolished, it is still standing. These days it is a music shop – HW Audio. A great photo of the building is on their home page… https://www.hwaudio.co.uk
The cinema where the music shop stands was a completely different cinema called The Royal, about half a mile from The Rialto. Both had an address of St Georges Rd.
The Apollo was in a building next door to The Rialto. As of late 2015 the building had been cleaned up from the previous mess that it was, but was still firmly shuttered.
It later went to Star, and was on BIngo in 1970, when I became assistant manager there.