The Gaumont’s beginnings
The Gaumont cinema in Trowbridge was located at 27 Fore Street and served as a major local landmark before its closure and eventual demolition. It was just one of many cinemas within the British arm of the Gaumont group – over 300 by 1929! While the name is French, the British arm of the company became a powerhouse of Art Deco architecture and cinematic history. The group began as a subsidiary of the French company Gaumont (the oldest film company in the world, founded in 1895 by Léon Gaumont). By 1922, the British arm became an independent company under the Ostrer brothers.
The Trowbridge Gaumont opened on November 29, 1937, on the site of the former Palace Cinema. It was designed by architects W. E. Trent and W. Sydney Trent with a large capacity of 1,220 seats, divided between 860 in the stalls and 360 in the balcony.
The Gaumont grows
By 1941, the Rank Organisation, owners of the rival Odeon chain, took control of Gaumont-British. For decades, the two chains operated side-by-side as a “duopoly.” The Trowbridge Gaumont offered the town a glimpse of local celebrity in 1942; during a screening of Hoppity Goes to Town, residents spotted Uncle Remus walking through Trowbridge to attend a showing.
The Gaumont British Kiddies Club was a popular Saturday morning cinema club for children operated by the chain in the 1940s–1950s, featuring films, cartoons, and a theme song. The Saturday morning club offered 2.5 hours of entertainment, including cartoons, serial films, community singing, and competitions. Members often sang a theme song that began: “We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile…”.
Decline of the cinema
By the late 1950s, television began to kill cinema attendance. Rank began consolidating and slowly phased out the Gaumont name in favor of the more “modern” Odeon brand. Finally, in 1962, the company rebranded the Trowbridge Gaumont as the Odeon. The cinema closed its doors permanently on March 20, 1971, following a general decline in theatre attendance during that era.
