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The Royal Cinema was designed by the ABC Cinema ‘in-house’ architect WR Glen and opened in 1938. Large for a late 1930s provincial cinema, it sat 2,404 and was fitted with what may have been the best Compton Organ installed in any ABC. Within a few short years many of the buildings nearby had been destroyed in the Blitz, but the Royal Cinema endured and was one of the few pre-war buildings mentioned by name in ‘A Plan for Plymouth’, with it forming the nucleus of a new entertainment district which included the Athenaeum, Westward Television and the Drake Twentieth Century Fox cinema.
In the 1950s the ABC chain introduced live performances to its cinemas to counteract falling audiences, and the cinema (by now known as the ABC) hosted many live acts including two visits by the Beatles, performances ending in 1976 with Morecambe and Wise the last to entertain an audience. The building was then subdivided, the cinema reopening with three screens one located above the foyer and two in the former circle, while the stalls and stage were converted into a bingo hall. This secured its future through the 1980s, a period which saw the loss of many cinemas. It has been a Cannon Cinema, and an MGM, and was last run as a Reel cinema.
The Royal Cinema was the last of the great twentieth century cinemas still operating in Plymouth. Both the Regent (latterly an Odeon) and the Drake have been demolished. The former Gaumont Palace, following a number of incarnations as a nightclub is in the process of being rescued from years of abuse by Nudge Community Builders.
Barring its temporary closure for the 1970s conversion and a short period in 1941 following bomb damage, the Royal delighted audiences for 81 years, the last WR Glen cinema to have operated in its intended role continuously.
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