Crystal Palace Theatre

537 Mount Eden Road,
Auckland 1024

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Additional Info

Functions: Movies

Styles: Baroque

Previous Names: Mount Eden Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Crystal Palace Theatre entrance (2015)

The Mount Eden Theatre opened in 1916 with 765 seats. It’s not a large theatre but it’s very nice inside. It has a lovely molded ceiling in the lobby and the main auditorium is very nice with molding all over the ceiling and walls and a lovely fancy arch over the screen with dark red curtains around the screen.

Lovely wall lights covered with crystal studs over them done up like chandeliers.

There is a ballroom located on the sub-ground floor beneath the cinema which was very popular from the late-1920’s. By 1973 this area was in use as a licenced cabaret room. The Crystal Palace Theatre was closed in the mid-1990’s. In 2013 irregular screenings began, which by 2015 had become monthly screenings.

The building has a Grade 2 Listed status.

Contributed by Michael

Recent comments (view all 16 comments)

mikebeeny
mikebeeny on May 12, 2010 at 3:27 pm

It is so sad to see what was once a really nice Cinema unused and falling to pieces. I had a look round it some two years ago. I saw some film running, so everything does work but sadly by today’s standards no one would pay to sit in such a cinema. Everything would need replacing, the sound was good for the 70s but stands no chance these days. The floor only has a gentle slope, people expect to be able to see all the screen these days so a stadium seating plan would be required. The building is slowly rotting away with plaster falls in the projection room. The current owners do not have any plans to do anything with the building.

LukeSmith
LukeSmith on March 23, 2011 at 6:16 pm

My fiancée and I walked past this cinema yesterday and we really want to look into hiring it for our wedding day, does anyone have a contact number please?

miriambarr
miriambarr on September 4, 2011 at 7:04 pm

Hi there – mrt1924 – can you please post those photos again? The link doesn’t work anymore – would love to see them – I will be performing in this theatre in October and can’t wait for my tour through to see the interior!

prettyfabulous
prettyfabulous on September 15, 2012 at 9:29 pm

Hi if anyone knew what the number or website to buy and rents this theatre PLEASE contact me .uk because i was wondering to buy crystal palace, do it up and maybe reopen it up???

Aklesha
Aklesha on December 10, 2012 at 7:19 pm

Hi, Im actually interested in renting the small shop that used to be the snack shop. Would make a great little cafe. Shame to see it not put to use, I wish someone would buy it and restore it ti its former glory. Used to go here as a kid in the 60-70’s. Any info would be apreciated, contact me at . Cheers!

nickparis
nickparis on August 12, 2013 at 4:29 am

Movies return to the Crystal, it appears that the film ‘The Room" will have monthly screenings there from September 6th onwards… great news and long overdue!!!. Shuttered for what seems an eternity, could this be a step in the right direction? watch this space…

Robin Gee
Robin Gee on January 21, 2015 at 2:01 pm

There are now regular (monthly) screenings of The Room at the theatre and recently the annual 24 hour Movie Marathon was held here. I lit the interior for the event and will post pictures or a link to images soon. I am about to film a short documentary on this theatre, anyone with any information should feel free to post here and I’ll work out how to get in touch.

tonyr1
tonyr1 on February 25, 2015 at 7:57 pm

I have made a short documentary (10 mins) about which can be viewed at http://youtu.be/f44hHnecJhw

I used to visit it regularly in the early 1970s when it was nearer to it’s original 1930s glory.

Robin Gee
Robin Gee on March 1, 2015 at 2:38 pm

Great little doco Tony cheers…

We’re making a doco for Loading Docs over the next few months …it will be accompanied with an on line resource … as part of it I hope to open a space in the theatre to record interviews and share stories about the theatre during March 2015 info can be found here… https://www.facebook.com/crystalpalacetheatre?fref=nf

and a link to our crowd funding campaign to be run through March 2015 can be found here… http://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/please-open-the-crystal-palace-documentary

Here’s the facebook page being run by the current projectionist and currently the most direct link to the theatre… https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crystal-Palace-Mt-Eden/570338429673565?fref=nf

Robin Gee
Robin Gee on September 6, 2015 at 5:53 pm

Recently Karl Sheridan and I completed a short documentary on The Crystal Palace as part of loadingdocs (a short format documentary initiative http://loadingdocs.net). We opened the theatre up daily to give locals the opportunity to come in and share their stories and to have a little look around. We hosted a major screening event of a couple of local films that had screened in the theatre years ago, one with a live soundtrack from local band The Echo Ohs. The event was also supported by a local brewery, Bach Brewing.
It was a huge success and signaled the launch of the filming of our documentary which we have just recently completed. Over the next few months we hope to post more information and images about this theatre and hope to create a resource about it and it’s history. Meanwhile feel free to check out, imbed and share our doco “Please Open” … https://vimeo.com/132294910

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