Theatre Royal
Hawkins Street,
Dublin
2
Hawkins Street,
Dublin
2
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Scenographs , better known as Brennographs were the cinematic version of disco lighting. They could be used with colour wheels to give a variety of lighting effects such as swirls and flashes.
Many of these machines were also capable of being used as ordinary slide lanterns for projecting urgent news items over the running feature. I can remember using one to project news of Yuri Gargarin’s return to earth.
The site the theatre occupied was 91 feet wide and 108 feet deep.A Ross Scenograph machine was installed in this theatre.Does anyone know what this was used for.
Hawkins House seems likely to survive, the recession in property seems to have put redevelopment plans on hold.
There are now plans to demolish the office block that replaced the Theatre Royal.
Hawkins House was built on the site of the Theatre Royal and the Regal Rooms Cinema by their owners, the Rank Organisation. It has regularly topped polls since as the ugliest building in Dublin, but is fully occupied mainly by government agencies including the Department of Health. There are suggestions that the nearby Screen Cinema, built as the New Metropole by Irish Rank but soon disposed of on part of the site and still in use as a cinema, might also be included in redevelopment plans. So it is possible that Hawkins House, which already led to the demise of two cinemas, might bring down another one when it is redeveloped.