EAW029743 ENGLAND (1950). Cornhill, Brentgovel Street and environs, Bury St Edmunds, 1950

The Playhouse cinema

Road Markings

Road Markings

Market Cross - formerly a theatre, now an art gallery (2015)

War memorial (behind the tree)

Playhouse Theatre: 1924 saw the opening of a new Central Cinema in Hatter Street, and it was announced that the new Playhouse [currently the Argos store 2015] would be opened in the summer of the next year. With the new Playhouse opening and with other places of amusement being provided, the need for the Theatre Royal was not so marked and it was closed. The final performance took place on April 25 1925. Bury St Edmunds Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society did their last production in the Theatre in October 1924 (Gondoliers) and their first in The Playhouse (cinema with stage) in Buttermarket in November 1925 (Rose of Persia). Sir Peter Hall's father, Reg, was in both - the family lived in Avenue Approach when Reg was working for the railway. The Playhouse closed around 1959. BSEAODS did their last musical there (Brigadoon) in November (Stanley Vincent, and Ralph Ambrose were in that) and last production, a play, (Doctor in the House) in December that year.