Palladium Cinema

This was the first purpose built cinema in Aberystwyth and was built for Arthur Cheetham, the Rhyl showman and entrepreneur. It was opened at the East Gate end of Market Street in 1911. It had 300-seats. During the years of World War I, this was the only venue regularly showing films in the town, and led, it is said, to a decline in both the quality and standard of films being shown. It was only when the Rink Cinema re-opened at the end of the war that Cheetham was forced to improve the product he showed.

In 1923 Cheetham had the building rebuilt and refurbished, and it reopened as the 600-seat Palladium Cinema. Cheetham claimed to have introduced talking pictures to the town in 1927, but in all probability these were talking shorts and not the feature films which heralded the true talking picture era. He and his family also shot a number of local interest films of local events to show at the cinema, which proved very popular with the locals. The Palladium Cinema was badly damaged by a fire in 1934 and the remains were later demolished.

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