by Carolyn Jacob
The Castle Cinema was built on the site of the Castle Hotel, the first purpose-built hotel in the town and where William Crawshay himself often stayed. It is also the premises from whose windows the troops fired into an unarmed crowd during the Merthyr Rising of 1831. George Borrow, author of ‘Wild Wales’ stayed at the Castle Hotel in 1854. Merthyr did not impress him but he found the Ironworks ‘stunning’.
In 1926 the Castle Hotel was described as being ‘a disgrace to the town’ and it was soon to be demolished. The building was pulled down partly to widen Castle Street, but in 1928 a splendid cinema was erected on the vacant site. The Castle Cinema was built, at a cost of £36,000. Designed by O.P. Bevan and built by Mr. Warlow of Merthyr, it was one of the Principality’s finest cinemas.
It combined American and Welsh influences in its design and its interior was beautifully decorated with landscape murals which captured the feel of medieval Wales. Panels designed by a local artist J. Jones, a local artist showed castles in their settings under a brilliant sky, illuminated by two light ray domes. Its comfort and decoration were up to date and it had seats for 1,600.
The Castle was locally owned and run by Merthyr Cinemas Ltd. The post war depression had hit Merthyr by this time, but when he opened the building the Mayor said he looked on the venture as: ‘a magnificent gesture of faith in Merthyr’s future‘. The popular cinema was taken over by the ABC in 1932.
The Castle also had installed one of the finest organs in Wales, a Christie 3 Manual/10 Rank organ. The well-known Mr Gene Lynn was the resident organist at the Castle Cinema in the 1930s and he made many radio recordings.
The manager in the 1930s was Mr Haggar, a holder of the ‘Company of Showmen Shield’.
Advertised as ‘Castle Super Cinema’ in the 1930s with a ‘Christie Unit Organ, the third largest organ in Europe’. The organ however fell into disrepair in the late-1940’s and was removed in 1954. Strangely there were allotments behind the Castle Cinema right in the centre of the town where now there is a car park.
The fight for Sunday Opening of Cinemas, 1956
At one time chapel and church dominated life in the Borough. The social life of the town revolved around the many places or worship and the attendance every Sunday reveals a strong religious tendency. Merthyr Tydfil was a ‘non-conformist’ town and many people would attend chapel twice on a Sunday but they gradually lost control of Sundays, as the defeat over the Sunday closing of cinemas and pubs shows. In March 1956 there was a plebiscite on the much-debated issue – Sunday Cinemas in Merthyr. Derek Harris a young collier of Darren View, Penyard entertained in Al Jolson style the large crowd waiting for the result of the Sunday Cinema poll. The vote in favour of Sunday openings was a milestone.
The Castle Cinema was renamed the ABC Castle Super Cinema around 1963, still providing a vast 1,696 seats. beauty contests and Pop concerts were held here, one being by Pink Floyd in 1967 another by the group The Small Faces. In 1972 control passed to the Leeds based Star Group, converting the stalls area into a bingo hall, and constructing two studio cinemas in the balcony, seating 195 and 98, both were by means of periscope mirror projection with Westar Projectors and long play towers. The projection room being constructed from the second balcony level high in the original building, making it a nightmare journey for any projectionist to carry films up and down.
From 1977 the cinemas passed to a series of independent operators, and when bingo ceased in 1998, the former stalls area was re-seated and a giant 45-foot screen placed in front of the original stage area, with luxury seating for 300, this new Screen 1 opening in June 1999 with “The Mummy”. The two other screens also remained in operation but due to the high costs in maintaining such an old and rambling building, the cinema finally closed in September 2003. The building degenerated into a dilapidated state and was not used for the presentation of films again. For a brief time it was converted into a skating rink, a venture which soon failed. The permission for Merthyr Tydfil Council to demolish this listed but crumbling building came in October 2010 and by the close of 2011 nothing remained on the site.