Swinton Picture Theatre (later Plaza), Station Road, Swinton

The Swinton Picture Theatre in Station Road is assumed to have been built in the early 1920s and it appeared in the Kinematograph Year Book directories for 1927-1931 under that name. About this time it was taken over by the J F Emery Circuit and by 1933 had been named the Plaza. Ownership was now in the hands of Swinton Entertainments Ltd of which J F Emery was managing director. The cinema then had 849 seats, a proscenium width of 24 feet and there was a dance hall attached and two lock-up shops on Station Road, each side of the cinema entrance.

The Emery circuit continued to operate the cinema until 1957. In the 1960s it re-opened as the Wishing Well Club later re-named Oliver’s, following which it was used as a Roller Rink for a number of years.  The dance hall above the shops was in use for much of this time.

Reference           Kinematic Year Books 1927, 1928, 1929, 1929, 1931, 1936

It is assumed that the proposal to transform the cinema in 1929 was not progressed (see Drury and Gomersall, Capitol Cinema)