Report - Sandonia Cinema - Stafford - Feb 20

[Bikin Glynn]

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Located quite a distance away to the north of Stafford town centre. The Sandonia Cinema & Theatre was opened on 20th November 1920 with a stage production of “Chu Chin Chow”. The first film to be screened was Leslie Henson in “Alf’s Button” on 27th November 1920.
The facade of the building is attractively decorated in white stone, with the name ‘Sandonia’ in the stonework over the entrance Inside the extremely long and narrow auditorium, seating was located in stalls and circle levels. The cinema had a fully equipped stage, complete with a large fly tower for scenery. The distance from the projection box to the screen was a 110 feet throw.
Unfortunatelly I neglected to get any externals so have stole his from the net.

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Unfortunately, the Sandonia Cinema was not a great success, and it was closed in early-1923. It was sold to Messrs Goodalls, and re-opened on 5th March 1923 with “Anton Stewart in "Plaything of Destiny” and Al. St. John in “Village Sheik”.
In 1930, it became part of the small local Stafford Entertainments Ltd. chain. The last silent film to be screened was “The Silent House” on 16th August 1930. A BTH sound system was installed and the first talkie was Janet Gaynor in “Sunny Side Up” on 18th August 1930.
The Sandonia Cinema was equipped with CinemaScope on 8th June 1957 when Robert Wagner in “Between Heaven and Hell” became the first film in this process to be screened at the cinema. The Sandonia Cinema was closed on 26th September 1963 with Sophia Loren in “Madame” and Kent Taylor in “The Day Mars Invaded Earth”.

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The building was sold to a Wolverhampton company who re-opened it as an independent bingo club. Later operated as a Coral Bingo Club, bingo ceased in 1990, and it became a snooker club. The projectors were removed from the building in 1991 and sold to a private collector. The snooker club operated until the early-2000’s. Since then, it has stood empty and unused.

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Our explore here was another "drop in" on way back from somewhere late in the afternoon. Didnt know if this was accessible & its fair to say it was awkward & messy.
Once inside you soon realise there is very little left of the place & with the roof gone its just waiting to fall in on itself, but still made some reasonable decay pics
The light was all but gone in here forcing me to use long exposures.

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[Calamity Jane]

A nice pop in. There is some seriously nice decay there. The stair, roof & crest shot are crackers. Nice long history, interesting read. Like this

 

[Bikin Glynn]

A nice pop in. There is some seriously nice decay there. The stair, roof & crest shot are crackers. Nice long history, interesting read. Like this

Thanks Jane, I wouldnt mind popping back in daylight tbh my pics are somewhat lacking.

 

[Bando Exploration]

Very nice place there love the architecture too top one

 

[derelictth92]

That's cracking mate

 

[Ojay]

Some outstanding features amongst the decrepit

 

[raisinwing]

Nicely done, still retains some decent features despite the best efforts of the owners!

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Very nice place there love the architecture too top one

Thanks I enjoyed it in there

Nicely done, still retains some decent features despite the best efforts of the owners!

Yeah I really think they dont care about it & are waiting for a collapse.

That's cracking mate

Thanks.

Some outstanding features amongst the decrepit

Not bad for a soggy derp!

 

[hopeistyping]

i love how much effort you’ve put into the history of the place ) i’m new to this site but i’ve been past this building so many times and i’m looking forward to maybe visiting. thanks for all of the info. pictures look great by the way still some really good features around it despite how much the building has gone through lmao

 

[JasXPear]

Driven past this loads of times and often wondered what it was like inside, cheers