Ritz Cinema

In the Longford suburb of Coventry, the Dovedale Cinema Company Ltd. submitted plans for a cinema at the junction of the main Longford Road with Dovedale Avenue and Windmill Road in 1928. The Dovedale Cinema subsequently opened on Wednesday 9th January 1929 with Dolores Del Rio in “Loves of Carmen” and Pola Negri in “The Secret Hour”. Stalls and circle seated 1,040 patrons.

In 1934 H. T. A. Philpot acquired the licence and changed the name to the Rivoli Cinema.

He apparently relinquished control about 1940. In 1954 W. H. Bassett-Green, having owned the cinema in the 1930’s, re-acquired it and renamed it the Dovedale Cinema.

In 1956 ownership passed to C. H. Stanley. He renamed it the Ritz Cinema and installed CinemaScope.

Denton Cinemas purchased the Ritz Cinema around 1958. In 1969-70 it was sold to an Asian consortium, who ran it as a Asian cinema until it closed at the end of 1981. The building was on the market in 1982 for £60,000. Later the exterior brick-work was covered by blue metal cladding.

When I visited, in July 2001, the building was derelict. In ‘Coventry Picture Palaces, Gil Robottom says that it was demolished in 2007. However, Google Street View indicates it was still standing, and for sale, at least until November 2020.

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