Cinemas
outside Dublin / Athlone
Cinemas
outside Dublin / Athlone
Small town cinemas were usually fairly basic.
The Ritz, Athlone by Michael Scott and the Savoy, Waterford by Robinson & Keefe were a little more elaborate in the international style. The Ritz was demolished in 1999, to be replaced by an apartment development. The Savoy, Waterford is now a fast food vendor..
The Ritz, Athlone, 1938/39, with 1,000+ seats, was not built exactly as planned in the attractive published design for it, which envisaged a riverside cafe, glass porthole windows and a large glass window on the facade. This is the side view on the side adjoining the River Shannon after alterations which closed in many of the windows. The foyer was painted in a colour scheme incorporating a pale duck egg blue ceiling, with beige and pale grey walls. It was closed as a cinema and some of the window apertures had been blocked up. Photographs in the press on November 18th 1999, show the cinema with a demolished foyer and part of the side wall with demolition continuing. Another one bites the dust. Scott also built a modern style cinema in Clonmel for the same developer, now also gone
Ritz Athlone front view Photographs © June 1998.