The Victoria Theatre, in Devonport,

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand, is both the country's and the Southern Hemisphere's oldest surviving purpose-built

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

, dating from 1912.About and contact
''thevic.co.nz''. Retrieved 14 April 2024.Victoria Theatre
" ''cinematreasures.org''. Retrieved 14 April 2024. It was extensively refurbished in 2010.

History

The Victoria Theatre was built in 1912 for American John Leon Benwell, and originally held a capacity of 965. In 1914 John Benwell sold the theatre to Fuller-Haywards Picture Company. The building was remodelled after a fire in 1924. In 1929, Fuller-Haywards converted the building to allow for the new talking pictures.Our history
Victoria Theatre Trust. Retrieved 14 April 2024. The Victoria was taken over by Kerridge Odeon in 1945. Kerridge ran the theatre until 1988, when dwindling patronage saw the building put up for sale. Publisher Bruce Palmer, who acquired the theatre, converted it into Charley Gray's Twin Cinemas Devonport, with three separate cinema theatres. The Victoria changed ownership several times in the following years, before a threat to turn it into an apartment complex in the early 2000s saw the creation of the Victoria Theatre Trust. The trust persuaded the then

North Shore City Council North Shore City was a territorial authority unit in the Auckland Region of New Zealand that was governed by the North Shore City Council. It existed from 1989 until November 2010, when the council was incorporated into Auckland Council. It ha ...

to purchase the building, and reopened the venue as a cinema and live venue.

Architecture

The theatre was originally designed by Auckland architect John Walker and erected for £6,000, just two years after the country's first purpose-built cinema. The complex was built by Edward James for £6,500. Remodelling to accommodate sound technology in 1929 was to a design by Daniel Patterson. Patterson's changes included enlarging the previous building, with major changes to both interior and exterior. Much of the building's current

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

exterior dates from this time. The building has a

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

Historic Place Category 1 status.

The theatre today

The building currently contains four cinema theatres (total capacity 386) plus a live venue space.

References

External links

Official website
Cinemas in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Auckland 1912 establishments in New Zealand North Shore, New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Auckland Region Performing arts venues in New Zealand Devonport, New Zealand {{theatre-stub