page_title: New Farm Cinemas
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New Farm Cinemas / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Curved timber truss, New Farm Cinemas, 2015
context_page_description: New Farm Cinemas is a cinema at 701 Brunswick Street, New Farm, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first built c. 1921. It is also known as Astor Theatre, Merthyr Picture Palace, and Village Twin Cinema Complex. While not heritage-listed itself, the New Farm Cinemas redevelopment has retained elements of the heritage-listed Village Twin Cinema, which was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 March 2000.
context_section_description: The Village Twin at New Farm opened in late 1970, was the first twin cinema complex in Queensland and one of the earliest multi-screen cinemas in Australia. It was a renovation of the popular Astor Theatre, established as the Merthyr Picture Palace c. 1921, on the same site at the corner of Brunswick and Barker Streets.
  The site - part of a larger parcel of land alienated in 1845 - had been subdivided by 1880 as a residential allotment of 44 perches (1,100 m²), and a cottage, fronting Barker Street and Oxley Lane, appears to have been extant by 1883. There does not appear to have been any development of the northern end of this block prior to approval being granted by the Brisbane City Council in September 1921, for Mousley & Halliday of New Farm to erect a picture show with concrete and iron walls at the corner of Barker and Brunswick Streets. Known as the Merthyr Picture Palace, the theatre was functioning by 1923 at least, and probably opened in late 1921.
  The Merthyr Picture Palace was the third picture theatre established in New Farm, which in the early 20th century was one of Brisbane's most closely settled suburbs, particularly north of Brunswick Street. The Earls Court Picture Theatre, one of the earliest picture shows in Brisbane, operated at the corner of Brunswick and Kent Streets from c. 1912 and was renovated as the Rivoli Picture Theatre c. 1920. The Colosseum Picture Theatre was established c. 1918 at 528 Brunswick Street [near the corner of Harcourt Street], but appears to have folded in the early 1920s. All three theatres were established along the principal street of New Farm, in close proximity to each other in the heart of the suburb. Competition amongst early suburban picture show exhibitors was strong, and despite the enormous popularity of moving pictures, only the Merthyr Picture Palace (remodelled as the Astor Theatre in 1924) survived the introduction of sound films in the late 1920s and the economic depression of the early 1930s.
  Richard Francis Stephens and Charles Eric Munro, who established one of Brisbane's most successful suburban interwar picture theatre chains, had acquired an interest in the Merthyr Picture Palace by at least 1924, when they commissioned Brisbane architect Claude E Humphreys to design additions and alterations to the theatre. Humphreys undertook a number of picture theatre commissions around this time, including theatres at Toowong and Kelvin Grove, and the front facades he designed were ornate fantasies in vaguely "Mediterranean" style. Brisbane City Council approval for the renovations to the Merthyr Picture Palace was gained in September 1924, and it is likely the alterations had been completed by the end of the year. The 1924 facade to the Astor Theatre changed little until the 1970 reconstruction, despite an impressive £7,000 renovation of the theatre undertaken in 1937 to the design of architect George Rae, which provided a seating capacity of 1,145.
  Stephens & Munro, exhibiting at the Astor as Merthyr Theatres [Pty] Ltd for over 45 years, developed the Astor as one of the most successful suburban picture theatres in Brisbane. From the 1920s to the 1950s, moving-going was a popular recreational pastime. Suburban picture theatres, many of which had elaborate street facades, were local landmarks and provided a focus for local social activity. Theatre proprietors were local identities, and knew their patrons by name. Their audiences, most of whom lived within walking distance, dressed for the occasion and made regular bookings to ensure good seats.
  Following the introduction of television to Brisbane in the late 1950s, cinema attendance declined steadily. The introduction of wide screens, technicolour and superior sound systems failed to halt this worldwide trend, and many of Brisbane's suburban theatres closed in the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1950s, the larger exhibition chains countered the loss of "hardtop" audiences with the construction of drive-in movie theatres. Another approach, pioneered in Australia in Melbourne in the 1960s, was to create multi-screen cine
caption: Early curved timber truss remain visible in the New Farm Cinemas, 2015
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