This week the Recorder is looking back at the history of Waitrose, in St Marys Lane, which has a vibrant backstory featuring a trailblazing cinema and a bingo hall.
The Capitol Cinema – branded a “super cinema” in its posters – opened on the site in October 1929, complete with more than 1,000 seats, four dressing rooms and a cafe.
Capitol Cinema, St. Marys Lane, Upminster c.1929(Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)
Its launch was part of a cinema boom across the country in the 1920s, which saw the introduction of “talkie” films at the end of the decade.
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While silent comedies and comedy-dramas were among the offerings shown in a newspaper advertisement at the time of opening, talkies such as The Barker and The Divine Lady took centre stage.
Ticket prices ranged from eight pence to two shillings and fourpence, and the showings were continuous between 2pm and 10pm.
Film magazine The Bioscope published a description on October 2, 1929 of the “spacious vestibule lounge” – through which the auditorium was accessed – panelled in oak and with a floor paved in mosaic.
Tickets were issued by an “Automaticket machine” and cinemagoers were even entertained by an organist on arrival, according to Havering Libraries.
The opening went ahead in spite of the lower auditorium being hit by flooding only three weeks beforehand.
In 1937, the Capitol was taken over by Eastern Cinemas and later, in 1943, became part of Odeon Theatres.
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While the venue was renamed Odeon in 1946, it underwent a rebrand again just three years later to become The Gaumont, following a takeover by Rank.
The cinema eventually shut in July 1961, with a final showing of The Magnificent Seven, before it was redeveloped as a Top Rank bingo hall.
When this closed in 1973, the premises was demolished.
The supermarket later built on the site was initially a Wallis, followed by a Somerfield, and now a Waitrose.
