Abandoned Cinema: Exploring a musky old abandoned cinema

3 August 2024

I've always been fascinated by the idea of visiting an abandoned cinema. There's a certain allure to witnessing a vast space with hundreds of empty seats slowly deteriorating. It was once a lively place packed with movie enthusiasts. With the rise of on-demand platforms like Netflix dominating the entertainment scene, cinemas could indeed become obsolete soon.

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History

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

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Exploring Abandoned Cinema

01	Exploring the Lower Hall
02	Exploring the Upper Hall

01 | Explore the Lower Hall

Nestled in a quiet and quaint neighborhood, we walked up to the small building which still had a coffee shop 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 have been wise to wear a mask.

Circling around the space and shining the torch around, we were finally able to orient 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 audience. We walked down the long aisle of seats towards the only light source coming from the entrance at the back. We could still hear the bustling of the coffee shop 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 coffee shop vendors below. We spotted someone sleeping next to the entrance, so we quietly walked towards the stairs. Perhaps it was one of the coffee shop vendors on their afternoon break.

02 | Exploring the Upper Hall

We continued up the stairs to the second floor. The stairs led to a long alley with a lone chair at the end, seemingly guarding the entrance to the theater. Walking in, we were greeted with a smaller theater with walls a cheery turquoise color. 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 color. 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 a 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.

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My Thoughts

The neighborhood 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.