Former cinema in Castle Street, Wolverhampton

Image: © Roger D Kidd Taken: 14 Feb 2012

This is the frontage of the main entrance to the Pavilion, which was the first cinema in Wolverhampton, opening in 1909. Whether it was in use as a variety venue before that I have yet to find out, but until it closed in 1915 or 1916, it seems to have been a dual purpose business. A 1906 ground plan can be seen here http://www.wolverhamptonhistory.org.uk/leisure/cinemas which seems to show that it extended further along Castle Street (in both directions?), the adjacent frontage having been altered by the Express and Star who bought the premises in the (mid?) 1960s. It has been suggested by a former E & S employee that the cinema was then being used as a foundry. Since then it has been used as a paper store, but that has probably gone now because printing of the newspaper has been transferred to Telford. Clarification of any sort from local historians will be welcomed. P.S. Shame about the chocolate coloured masonry paint! Update: Stephen Richards notes that it was an early 1850s iron merchant's warehouse, partly rebuilt (Pevsner).

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