Page 7 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2002 #37

Demolitions
The Lyric Chapel Street Prahran,
May 2003.
Melbourne’s first purpose built
suburban cinema is now a rear wall.
The original front was long gone, re-
built as a bank and later for other
retailing, but in the cavernous
auditorium, used as a garage for bank
cars, remnants of the cinema days were
the bio ports and sections of painted
burlap peeling from the brick walls, the
only form of decoration. The planned
residential and retail development will
apparently retain the brickwork of the
back wall and part of the side walls.
Hoyts Windsor. May 2003. When the Windsor opened, six stands as the only monument to the
Opening 17 April 1936 Hoyts features - Crying Room, Ticket box, original partnership. The creativity
Windsor signaled the confident re- Seating, Projection, Heating and involved in the first working through of
entry of Hoyts into theatre construction. Cooling and Service - were claimed by a new style surely deserved greater
The Windsor was the first of seven Hoyts to be ‘found in no other theatre respect.
theatres which brought together Hoyts in Australia.’ The Journal of the Royal The site will become a five storey
(sometimes with Robert McLeish), the Victorian Institute of Architects also building comprising offices at ground
architects H. Vivian Taylor and Soilleux praised the innovations. level and dwellings above.
and the builders T.R. and L. Cockram The design of the ceiling overcame For more on the history of this
Pty. Ltd. in a merger of professional a problem often seen in earlier theatres; theatre see:
and trade skills unequalled in theatre an ugly ‘step-up’ to the ceiling roof of ‘Hoyts Windsor Theatre’ Rod How
construction in Victoria. the dress circle. At the Windsor the CinemaRecord 12 May 1996
The other theatres were (in ceiling was integrated from circle to
‘Cinemas of Australia via USA’
sequence) Hoyts Albury, Padua stage by gentle stepping all the way. In
Ross Thorne 1981
Brunswick, Regal, Hartwell (all 1937); Cinemas of Australia via USA Ross
‘Builders of Melbourne’ Mary
Park Albert Park, Ozone Mildura Thorne assessed the theatre output of
Shaw 1972.
(both 1938) and the Rivoli Camberwell Taylor and Soilleux from 1936 –39 as
Reporting by: Cameron Hall,
(1940). ‘the most consistent and Architectural
Gerry Kennedy, David Kilderry, Brian
From this experience Taylor said designs of the whole moderne period.’
Mier, Brian Miller, Fred Page, Ian
that if a prospective client could state Yet for all this the Windsor did not
Smith and Peter Wolfenden.
the number of seats he wanted in a new rate a heritage status of sufficient clout
theatre, then he could tell him the cost. to save it. The Rivoli Camberwell now

The Windsor Theatre

CINEMARECORD 2002 7