CovSoc founder member, Paul Maddocks, reflects on the history of one of Coventry’s former cinemas and wonders about its future. Paul writes….
‘The Astoria’ was a once popular cinema in Albany Road. It was built in 1922 and closed in 1959 after the glory days of the silver screen were taken over by the TV age. It has been a few things since then, including a furniture warehouse for C&W.
The cinema was initially called the Broadway and was built by Mr AW Pell, owner of the other Coventry cinemas. Every innovation was considered for the comfort of patrons, although it was built in the age of the silent film.
After climbing the pink marble steps into the elegant foyer patrons were welcomed with oak panelled walls, big oak settees, a gas fire, large candelabra and potted ferns. With ‘Variety , Pictures and Music’ the Broadway soon became very popular.
In 1929 it was sold to Tottenham Pavilions of London who installed the new ‘talkies’ and resold it to the Orr brothers in 1933. At this time it became the Astoria and was part of the Coventry Five Star Circuit of cinemas, which in turn were sold to Odeon in 1939. The Astoria struggled through the war years and finally fell victim to television in the 1950’s. The Astoria finally closed its doors as a cinema on 1 November 1959.
For many years the building was used for a variety of commercial purposes until its sympathetic restoration and eventual sale to Nexus, who now use the building as a music college.
Many other old cinemas were turned into Bingo Halls or other leisure building and have since been demolished. Most recently the Paris cinema in Far Gosford Street was given permission to be demolished to make way for student flats after the ‘Empire’ live venue moved to Hertford Street.
For the past twenty-six years the Astoria has been a College for the Performing Arts. Actors, musicians, singers, songwriters and technicians come from all over the world to study there. It was run by a Christian organisation called ‘Nexus Institute of Creative Arts’. Over the past two years the college has been slowly closing down and not taking on any other new students. It is now come to an end and has been put up for sale
I did get to know them right back when they first set up in Coventry in 1998. I was working at the Transport Museum and the students from Nexus came to see me and asked if they could borrow some props for a production they were doing around the Coventry Blitz.
They had seen my Coventry Blitz Experience display in the museum and asked if I could loan them an old Pram, bicycle, tin helmets, sand bags and lots of other bits and bobs, which I did. The young students came to the museum in a mini bus and loaded them on board and said I could have some tickets to see the show, which I think was a musical type thing. I do not know really what it was like as I did not make it to the performance as I was busy doing other things.
A couple of weeks later they returned the items and were very surprised that I did not want anything for the loan. I was just happy that they were able to use them and that it had been a success. I got a few more invites to go and see their performances, especially around Christmas and their Christmas production of carols etc. But again, I never got to see them but heard very good reviews.
I do not know why they are closing down. I am not sure as it is a charity if its funds have run out or they are just moving on!
The building is a great community asset and it would be lovely if another performance group of actors or musicians could take it over.
It has some lovely facilities, see photograph of it inside and some of the students performing.
I am not very hopeful of its future as a historic building. It has been reported in the press that it has been put on the market for sale as a ‘potential redevelopment and investment opportunity’ for the price of £800,000.
This is not very good news as it means there will be out of town speculators who will not be interested in the historical building but want to acquire it for its real-estate land. Sadly, it’s not listed and it is not in the Earlsdon Conservation Area.
Not far away the old Spencer Sports and Social Club was demolished and turned into a large student flats complex, which I fear is it future for the old Astoria cinema. We can only hope that the student flat market has dropped out of favour but housing of all types is still in demand. It is close to the railway but this will not put off some speculators.
It would be great if the local community were able to save it as a community asset. Alternatively, a use by another theatre group or university course would be suitable.
It would be good to save this interesting example of one of the many cinemas that used to be dotted all over the city, but sadly they are disappearing like our public houses.
Paul Maddocks
July 2024
Thanks to Earlsdon Online and Nexus ICA for information and images.