The area and the road, King Street, that you see on the photograph was first developed in 1934 by William Christopher of the ‘Letheby & Christopher’ catering firm.
The Art Deco style building, at the centre of the photograph, housed a cinema which could accommodate 1200 persons! It was named the ‘Radio Centre’ and had been designed by F. Edward Jones. The cinema opened on the 11th of April 1936 and the first film to be shown was a British comedy – ‘Dishonour Bright’ – directed by and starring Tom Walls. The ‘Radio Centre’ became the ‘Classic’ which eventually closed in 1989 and was subsequently demolished. The foundation stone of the ‘Radio Centre’ is now on display at the museum.
On the left-hand side of the photograph is Boots, the chemist, and on the right-hand side Caffyns’ motor garage (with the flag).
Photograph by E.A. Sweet
10.1936
EGRTM 2740
We've been looking through our collections, and discovered this 1972 photograph from the East Grinstead Observer, o…
Comments(2)
robert sutherland says:
October 2, 2021 at 12:31 pmI seem to recall that the design of the cinema was based on the Radio City building in New York.
Richard Gray says:
September 16, 2023 at 12:49 pmYes it was designed to look like ‘Radio City’
My aunt, Doris Gray (nee Paice) worked for Caffyns.