Page 4 - CinemaRecord #83

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n historic theatre building in
Athe Brisbane suburb of New
Farm has been brought back to life
thanks to two brothers, Peter and
Stephen Sourris, well known
Queensland exhibitors, who
bought the former Village Twin
Cinema with the intention of
bringing it back to life. The new
cinemas will be known as the New
Farm Cinemas.
Movies on the site date back to
1921 when it opened as the
Merthyr Picture Palace and
became The Astor in 1924. It was
then remodelled as the Village
Twin in 1970. Historically, it was
the first twin cinema complex to
open in Queensland.
The new cinema complex will eventually have
The heritage listed Village Twin was designed six screens and will concentrate on mainstream
by Ron Monsborough, perhaps Australia’s fare and largely avoid art house films. The
most acclaimed cinema architect; the Village New Farm Cinemas will seek to
Twin was widely hailed as his masterpiece. ‘complement’ Palace Centro, rather than
The theatre closed in 2001, and was bought by compete directly with it.
the Sourris Brothers last year.
The first stage (comprising two screens: the
‘Purple Room’, which has 220 seats
and a premium 70-seater) opened with
the Queensland premiere of Guardians
of the Galaxy on Thursday 31 July.
The next stage of the development will
see four new cinemas being built - two
will seat 100 each and the other two
will be Gold Class style, seating 30
each.

The roof trusses (arches) which are
from the original Merthyr Picture
Palace, have made a feature in the
foyer. H

he former Avro Theatre in Bulimba
Twhich is now Cinema 1 of the
Balmoral Cineplex (current building
dating back to the 1920s, and was open air
before that) has recently been renovated.
The cinema was closed for a month during
which time the old ceiling was replaced,
along with new carpets and fancy new
chandeliers. New side wall décor has been
added, and the seats have been recovered.
New screen curtains were fitted at the time.
The screen was also covered and not
replaced. None of the projection/sound
was updated. The original Avro ceiling
arches have been retained.

The design was created by Hot Concepts.H

Text & Images:
Steve Maggs
Peter Sourris Top: The original
Bottom: The new

4 CINEMARECORD # 83