Devon Cinema Gazetteer

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CREDITON

Cinema

The Town Hall was operated as a cinema by H R Harris from around 1923 until the Palace was opened in the early 1930s.  This fine looking building is situated on the High Street.

Palace ~ Regal

A fairly standard design appears again and again on West Country Cinemas and the Palace is no exception.  A front block with a cinema entrance in the centre, via a passageway to give access the cinema block set behind.  To either side of the passageway were shops.  Unlike some of these designs which utilised an existing row of shops, the Palace appears to have had a purpose built frontage.  It is situated slightly out of the town centre on East Street. Opened in the early 1930s, with 360 seats and British Acoustic sound, the proscenium was 18' wide.  The operating company was Crediton Cinema Company Ltd.  By 1959 CinemaScope was installed by widening the proscenium to 21' 6" and the screen was 19' wide.  In the 1960s the cinema was purchased by Charles Scott Cinemas and renamed Regal.  The sound system was changed to RCA. The cinema closed in the late 1960s or early 1970s and was converted into a snooker hall.  The projection box remains but is empty.  The passageway still has a decorated tile floor, however the frontage is much altered.

Gone but not forgotten:        Gaumont British Cinema

During World War II Gaumont British Cinemas moved some of its operations out of the capital to the Newcombes mansion near Crediton.  All GB cinema takings  went by train to Crediton where special machines would count the money.  Chalets were built in the grounds for the staff along with a cinema, as you would expect.  All now demolished.

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