Former Rhos Playhouse, Penrhyn Avenue, Rhos-on-Sea
This was originally the Rhos Playhouse cinema. It opened on 11 April 1914. The photo of it under construction is shown here courtesy of Conwy Archive Service.
The building is a long barn-shaped structure with an ornate frontage. It was designed by Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, who designed many distinguished buildings in Colwyn Bay and further afield.
The first owner and manager was Sydney Frere (1875-1948). His son Frank was awarded the Military Cross and died in the Second World War, being buried in Hong Kong.
The cinema had double seats at the ends of the rows. They were popular with courting couples and usually the first to be occupied!
There was a tram stop near the building, on the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay Electric Railway’s route. The photo, from the L&CB Tramway Society’s collection, shows the Playhouse beyond a tramcar which has paused at the stop. The tramcar, no.4, is one of five bought from Accrington Corporation in 1933.
The cinema prospered during the Second World War. The Ministry of Food had moved from London to Colwyn Bay, where places of entertainment were needed.
On Sunday evenings the building was used by George E Mellor to make silent movies. He formed a group called Rhos Amateur Film Productions, with its own group of actors. He was the director and cameraman. The group made the films inside the Rhos Playhouse on Sunday evenings. His wife Laura was his main female lead. His first film, The White Slaver, was a thriller, made in 1932. The second, called Nightmare, aimed to portray “the workings of an unhinged mind” and represented Great Britain in an international amateur-film competition, where it won second prize.
George Mellor was also a founder of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club and established a model railway company called GEM, from buildings on Rhos Road.
The building became a Co-op grocery store in the 1980s and a suspended ceiling hid the vaulted ceiling. It reopened in 2022 after refurbishment (at a cost of more than £75,000) by carpet and flooring company Linney Cooper. It’s now the company’s showroom. Inside you can now see the vaulted ceiling with its restored roses and plasterwork. The lower photo shows restoration in progress.
Linney Cooper director Alan Hughes, whose father Robert founded the company in a Colwyn Bay basement, was delighted to be able to restore the building – he watched the film Zulu here in 1973.
With thanks to Graham Roberts of Colwyn Bay Civic Society, and to Conwy Archive Service and John Bird of the L&CB Tramway Society
Postcode: LL28 4RN View Location Map