Abandoned Cinema: Exploring a musky old abandoned cinema

3 August 2024

I have always wanted to visit an abandoned cinema. There's just something about seeing a huge room with hundreds of empty seats left quietly decaying. A room that was once filled with throngs of movie goers. And with on-demand movie platforms like Netflix taking over the entertainment industry, cinemas might truly become obsolete in the near future.

History

The cinema opened in the 1978 as a single screen cinema and later converted to 2 screen cinemas to offer movie goers more movie choices and convenience. The theatre showed mainly Chinese films from Shaw Brothers Hong Kong and catered to the residents in the neighbourhood. With the opening of a 4 screen Cineplex in the nearby shopping mall, the neighbourhood cinema soon saw its sales number dwindling, which eventually led to its closure in the late 1990s.

Exploring Abandoned Cinema

01	Exploring the Lower Hall
02	Exploring the Upper Hall

01 | Explore the Lower Hall

Nestled in a quiet and quaint neighbourhood, we walked up to the small building which still had a coffeeshop operating on the first floor. The only sign that it was once a cinema was the Shaw Brothers logo sitting proudly at the top of the building. We walked in through a back door which at first sight seemed to lead to a storage room. But upon closer inspection, the high ceilings gave away its identity. We crawled through the space filled with dust so thick we were choking. In hindsight, it would had been wise to wear a mask.

Circling around the space and shining the torch around, we were finally able to orientate ourselves. We were standing behind the cinema screen at the back of a huge cinema theatre. The entire theatre was painted red. We climbed up the metal supporting structure to get onto the theatre stage. It was a surreal experience coming face to face with a thousand empty cinema seats, as if we were on stage performing to our invisible audiences. We walked down the long alley of seats towards the only light source coming from the entrance at the back. We could still hear the bustling of the coffeeshop just outside. A huge contrast to the eerily quiet and dark theatre. The cinema toilets are now sealed from the inside and converted to public toilets only accessible from the exterior of the building.

The lobby outside was also painted red, similar to the theatre and sat an old desk and other old furniture. The lobby space seemed to have been converted into a storage space for the coffeeshop vendors below. We spotted someone sleeping next to the entrance, so we quietly walked towards the stairs. Perhaps it was one of the coffeeshop vendors on their afternoon break.

02 | Exploring the Upper Hall

We continued up the stairs to the 2nd floor. The stairs led to long alley with a lone chair at the end, seemingly guarding the entrance to the theatre. Walking in, we were greeted with a smaller theatre with walls a cheery turquoise colour. We walked around the space and located a back door. The back door opened up to the rooftop of the building, where the shaw logo stood.

We walked into the small projector room at the back which had small windows facing out. I supposed this was where the projectors were placed to screen the movies. There was also a chart showing the movie lineups for the day, and movie decals plastered around the walls.

The smaller theatre also had a lobby area in a matching turquoise colour. The ticketing counter had a vintage design style (art deco style?). Nothing much remains on the counter except for a marrybrown receipt and a rod used to close the shutters. There was a curious door next to the counter which I suspect was storage room. I opened it carefully and got a slight shock. I came face to face with a huge ape face staring back at me. This was definitely strategically placed to scare unsuspecting visitors lol.

My Thoughts

The neighbourhood itself seemed to be stuck in the past with shops that looked like they had stayed the same for decades. Perhaps cinemas will soon become a thing of the past. We then tried to visit another cinema in the area, but unfortunately it had already been closed off. Oh well.

Chasing Peaks