Former St George's concert hall
Former St George’s Hall, 74 Mostyn Street
The St. Georges concert hall (pictured right) was Llandudno’s first permanent place of entertainment. It was built in 1863 by Thomas Owen to provide culture for the upper class visitors to the town. It opened the following year.
The first shows were two operas by Mozart, followed by regular concerts. This became the pattern for many years. The D’Oyly Carte opera company made frequent visits, playing the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas Mikado and Iolanthe, which were very popular then. In 1899 the hall received a complete makeover, which was followed by its renaming as the Prince’s concert hall in 1903. This coincided with a shift in repertoire to plays and musicals.
In the 1920s it was converted to give cinema shows. In the era of silent movies, films alternated with variety acts. With the coming of the talkies in 1930, variety was dropped and the venue only showed films. It continued as a cinema till 1957, when it was converted into a shop. Fittingly, it is now occupied by HMV, which caters for modern entertainment tastes with its range of CDs, DVDs and computer games.
With thanks to John Lawson-Reay, of the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay History Society
Postcode: LL30 2SB