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Gazetteer
Manor Hall in Manor Road. The frontage dates from 1860 and
is now an arts centre. The hall itself was built behind this
building in 1891, the architect was Major Balfour, who's
father built the 1860 building.
The Manor Hall was built as a concert hall and has never had a
fly tower or raked floor but did have stage and dressing
rooms. It became known as the Manor Theatre for a while
but has been known as the Manor Pavilion since the 1950s,
when the side entrance and facade was probably added.
Seats about 282. Film shows are no longer put on here but
the theatre has been improved with stadium seating and
modernised stage facilities. The Pavilion is the main live
entertainment venue for Sidmouth.
opposite on the Esplanade and remains a well used venue
today. It is not known in which period films were shown at
this venue, but it is likely to have been early.
in 1912 this was Sidmouth's first
permanent cinema by converting
the Belle Vue restaurant. The
entrance was situated on the
corner of the plot that narrows
Fore Street, and would have
faced up the High Street beyond
(now Vanity Fair). Beyond in the
main structure a small but
pleasant auditorium was situated.
The cinema closed when the
Grand opened further up the High
Street and never showed sound
films. A visit to Knights dress
shop reveals that the full height
and shape of the auditorium
survives and the proscenium can
still be made out on the back
wall. The exterior has been
altered to accommodate the shop.
The building is Grade II listed.
operating cinema surviving in Devon today, both the
exterior and interior still provide a flavour of cinema going
in the golden age. The cinema, situated at Radway Place
at the top end of town opened on 25th June 1928 as a
purpose built theatre. The local architect was P E
Steadman. The auditorium was 75' long and 41' wide with
seating for 520 in the stalls and 160 in the circle. The stage
was 22' deep with four dressing rooms. The proscenium
was 27' wide.
The owners Sidmouth Motor Company & Dagworthy Ltd had
gone onto build the Grand cinema just down the road in
1929 but before the year was out they had felt it necessary
to convert the Radway Theatre into a cinema also. For the
conversion it is said that the great Bristol
cinema architect William Henry Watkins was drafted in to
overseethe tricky conversion.
The original theatre had a well proportioned foyer with a
grand staircase which led to the circle lounge (used as a tea
rooms)looking out of the large windows at the front of the
building. This was mostly unaltered by Watkins however
the most interesting feature of the foyer had to go, the
public lift. This ran from the foyer up to the circle lounge
and the workings of the lift were housed in a room on the
2nd floor. As this was the only suitable space for a
projection box, the lift had to go. In the foyer the lift
space is now used as the box office and is a storeroom in
the circle lounge. In the auditorium there was a very
unusual feature, the ceiling was made out of pressed tin
sheets that formed a repeating pattern across the ceiling.
This system of decoration had been developed and
manufactured at Gorseinon, South Wales and were
extensively exported for use in the USA. A cheap, quick to
put up, light weight and low maintenance ceiling solution.
Watkins discovered that the ceiling was not high enough
for a clear beam from the new projection box, even putting
the projectors in a hole in the floor, so a small area of the
tin ceiling was removed and cut out to allow for projection.
The panels on the side walls never contained pictures.
The sound system installed was BTH, British Thompson
Houston. The theatre reopened with the talkie Kitty on
2nd December 1929, and so began the movies long
association with the building.
Briefly run by W S Robinson after the war by the 1950s Sid
Vale Cinemas Ltd had taken over. Western Electric sound
was installed. Other improvements included a 36' wide
screen installed in a widened 41' proscenium, and 3D films
could be shown. Seating had reduced dramatically to 385.
In the 1960s, having lost the competition from the Grand
(the two cinemas were always run by the same operators)
Miles Jarvis Cinemas of West Bromwich modernised the
cinema including the installation of 35mm Magnetic sound.
In the early 1980s the cinema was leased by Gordon Potter.
The cinema closed in 1984 for
essential repairs and investment including rewiring helped
by a grant from East Devon District Council (who own the
building) of £12,500. Charles Scott had taken over the
building and planned the work but sadly Mr Scott died before
the cinema
reopened on 17th August 1985 with A Passage to India.
Peter Hoare has run the cinema ever since.
In the early 1990s it was feared the cinema may close as it
was not turning a profit. Fortunes have fortunately
changed and the cinema closed for improvements again in
March 2000. This included air conditioning, new pullman
type seats in the balcony which have their own tables, and
new toilets. The exterior was painted and the interior
decorative scheme is blue and gold with red seating. Total
cost £81,000. Seating is now about 270.
cinema.
Photo courtesy of Harry Rigby
Sidmouth Radway cinema
cinema, built in 1929 and owned by Sidmouth Motor Company and
Dagworthy Ltd, the same as the Radway. Perhaps the success of the
Radway led the company to build this second cinema but it was never as
"grand" as the Radway.
Opened with 538 seats arranged on stalls and balcony the proscenium
width was 26'. Soon Cinephone sound was installed which was replaced
after the war with Western Electric. Passing through the hands of W S
Robinson, Sid Vale Cinemas Ltd installed CinemaScope but shortly after
in 1958 the auditorium was destroyed by a fire and pulled down.
The front of the building was retained as three shop units within the
foyer. Even more interesting the original fine iron and glass canopy also
survived until a few years ago, but sadly neglected it was found to be
unsafe and was destroyed.
