Last Night - 14th October
Last night, Steve West gave a fascinating illustrated presentation on the long history of cinema, and stage plays in Louth. In the late 1890s some films were shown at various locations, in 1910 a “tent” cinema was showing films on Westgate Fields. During 1913 a site was purchased of 2 retail units, on Eastgate, the retail units were demolished, and the Palace cinema / theatre was constructed on the site ready for opening in 1914.
During the interwar years many plays were staged at the Palace, and Steve has collected many of the original programs from this era.
The current Playhouse was constructed in Canon Street in 1921 in the “art deco” style, some poor quality housing was demolished to make way for this new cinema. The Playhouse, and the Palace both continued in operation until 1960 when the Palace was sold, and the building was converted into a Fine Fare supermarket.
During the 1970s when Bingo became popular, part of the Playhouse was used as a Bingo hall, with the reception area restyled to suit the new usage.
The Playhouse was converted into a multi-screen cinema when purchased by the Parkway Cinema group in the mid 1990s.
Louth is extremely fortunate to have retained a viable cinema in the town, many thanks to Steve West for a very polished presentation.
Louth Photographic Society














