A history of the Savoy Cinema Swindon.

This is a history of the Savoy, ABC Cannon Cinema which was in Regent Street Swindon. If you have any photographs of the old place and would like to share them please let me know, thanks. Contact Me

Personal Connection

I have a personal connection with the old ABC Cinema in Regent Street Swindon as I spent a great deal of time there in my teen years in the 1960's. This article is a collection of memories and images, some mine and some I have collected from the internet.

My first visits were for Saturday morning pictures as an 11 year old. I went regularly and progressed to become a Monitor, (older kids that looked after the younger ones) and later Head Monitor. I knew most of the staff at the time and became friends with several. So when it closed as Cannon Cinema in March 1991 I felt a great part of me was dying and I wanted to preserve some of the memories with pictures. 

History Overview

The Savoy Cinema was built on a site that had been occupied by the Temperance Hotel at the top end of Regent Street next to The Rifleman Hotel.

Associated British Cinemas (ABC) built the Savoy Cinema Swindon in the Art Deco style that was the fashion at the time. Designed by their in-house architect William R. Glen it had seating for a total of 1770 people, 1,130 in the stalls and 640 in the circle. It opened on 1st March 1937

At street level and inside the five sets of double entrance doors, the main foyer had a rather grand set of stairs and balcony that led to the Circle Foyer. There were two Cash Desks that served the whole cinema at the foot of the left and right hand stairs.

The Savoy remained pretty much the same until it was re-named to the ABC in late 1960; and then when the fashion changed away from large auditoriums to smaller ones, between April and July 1973, the ABC was closed for conversion into a triple-screen cinema. 

The ABC cinema was converted from one auditorium with seating in a circle and stalls area, into three screens. The work involved building a floor in front of the circle seating, and what was the Circle became ABC1.

Downstairs in the Stalls, a wall was built from front to back that split the seating. Around 70% going to ABC2 which was on the left as you looked from Regent Street and 30% to ABC3 which was on the right.

A new projection room was built across the rear of the Stalls in the Stalls Foyer in place of the kiosk, with the original projection room being retained for ABC1 as it was, at the rear of the Circle.

After the conversion, the two cash desks remained but the left hand staircase had now been blocked off and a new kiosk was built so this cash desk was modified to accommodate it. A new storeroom was built at the top of this staircase and was mainly used for the canopy lettering and posters storage.

A new Kiosk was built in the Circle (now ABC 1 Screen) Foyer but it was hardly used as such and often doubled up as an advanced booking office. 

The new screens that had been fitted during the tripling were closer to the audience than the original screen. In doing so, the original features and fittings had been left alone unless they had needed to be touched. Some of the Art Deco plasterwork around the old screen and proscenium arch was damaged to accommodate the new arrangements otherwise left alone.

The work to triple the cinema had largely been to add to internal fittings and structure with wooden construction rather than to alter any of the original structure. The line of circle could be seen in both ABC2 and ABC3 ceilings, and the floor of ABC1. It was thought that the conversion would not prevent sound from the three screens being heard in each others but in reality the sound insulation was perfect.

These two images show the right hand side of the old screen.

In 1986, it was taken over by the Cannon Group and re-named Cannon. 

Cannon only lasted five years and the old Savoy/ABC was closed on 26th March 1991 due to a new MGM 7-screen multiplex opening in the town. The final films at the Cannon were “Three Men and a Little Lady”, “Green Card” and “Godfather III”.

The building lay empty and unused until it was purchased by the J.D. Wetherspoon chain of pubs, and was refurbished and re-opened as ‘The Savoy’ on 16th February 1996. Wetherspoons only used the ground floors which were the two smaller screens leaving the old circle area largely untouched.  Subsequently a Church took over this area and has modified some of it but a lot of the old cinema remains.