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Uploaded on: February 22, 2026

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Elevated photo of the Cambria - later to become the Kings.

Shortly after opening Cambria Hall, David Nicholas realised the potential of using the site to introduce the local community to a new, exciting mass entertainment – ‘moving pictures’. The ‘movies’ shown at the hall were silent, accompanied by a pianist though, according to McAndrew (2001), the musical interpretation was often drowned out by noisy steam trains passing through the train station, opposite.

The hall, by now known locally as ‘The Cambria’, provided patrons with a lush interior that McAndrew (1999) describes as “decorated with exotic Italian scenes such as gondolas in the canals of Venice”. It is not difficult to imagine the delight such an entertainment experience must have provided for Epping locals of the time, emerging from the horror and hardships of the First World War.

In her memoirs, recorded in October 1985, long-term Epping resident Ethel Winifred McKerrell (1897-1998) recalled some of the fun family experiences she had enjoyed at The Cambria:

“Going to the flicks on a Saturday night was a popular event. Whole families would fill the theatre in Epping. Mum and Dad, my sister Esme and I would sit in the same row. The boys sat with their friends in the middle rows enjoying things that went on – lots of mucking up.”

The rise and fall of King’s Epping Theatre

By the early 1930s, silent movies began to be replaced by ‘talking pictures’. These films required large and complicated projection equipment so, in 1935, The Cambria became one the first two buildings in Sydney to be transformed into permanent cinemas by the renowned King’s circuit (the other being in Mosman). The building was renamed the King’s Epping Theatre, a local community venue where for decades local residents enjoyed the delights of the ‘big-screen’. By this time, Epping had developed into a large, respectable and affluent suburb.

Thelma Christie (b. 1926), who worked as an usherette at King’s Epping Theatre in the 1940s recalled when interviewed by McAndrew in 2001:

“Saturday sessions were extremely popular… reservations could be made by phone and lots of folk had permanent bookings. I recall two ladies had A11 and 12 upstairs on a permanent basis. These were the best seats in the house. In keeping with Epping standards, audiences were well-behaved and I never experienced any trouble”.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -