This pub is the former Savoy cinema. Built in the mid 1930s, in the fashionable Art Deco style, this super-cinema seated almost 2,000. The first-ever recorded film shown in Swindon was the St Louis Animated Picture Show, at the Faringdon Road swimming baths in 1907. Swindon got its first cinema three years later. The County Electric opened in Regent Street. It was followed (in 1912) by the Arcadia, also in Regent Street, and the following year by the Picture House. Nearly 25 years later, The Savoy cinema opened in Regent Street.
A photograph and text about The Savoy.
The text reads: The Savoy, an ABC cinema. Opened in 1937. This ‘art-deco Super Cinema’ is the largest and most up-to-date in Swindon. Attractions include: the best films from Britain and America, Saturday morning cinema club and stage shows.
A photograph of the screen in The Savoy cinema.
A photograph of the balcony in The Savoy cinema.
A selection of films shown at The Savoy.
Prints and text about special effects in movies.
The text reads: As soon as they were born, the movies set course for the untraveled regions. The Dream Machine began to equip itself with special effects. These were some of the first expeditions:
Above: It’s 1901, and Ferdinand Zecca from Charles Pathe’s cinematographic workshop takes to the air.
Top right: A year later George Melies goes to the moon.
Right: What goes up must come down – Melies descends into the ocean depths in 20,000 League Under the Sea, 1906.
A collection of old film posters.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk