From the
Mount Vic Flicks webpage:
"Mount Vic Flicks is located in heritage-listed Mount Victoria, one of the highest towns in the Blue Mountains and is a much loved and treasured icon of the Upper Blue Mountains. Built in 1934, the cinema is a window into the golden age of Australian country picture theatre culture.
"Our family run independent cinema shows an eclectic mix of quality films from Australia and abroad, arthouse to kids, new releases to classics. We are a participating cinema of the captured in HD broadcasts of the National Theatre Live and MET Opera series and host various local and international film festivals, special events and fundraisers."
Facilities
"Our snack bar offers homemade choc tops, home baked treats and hot soup in the cooler months of the year and the cheapest tea and coffee around.
"We accept most cards at the ticket box and in the snack bar.
"The venue is fully wheelchair accessible, including parking, toilets and snack bar and can accommodate a large number of wheelchairs.
"The cinema is equipped with a hearing loop system and headsets can be provided for those who do not have hearing aids with a T-switch."
History
"Known as Mount Victoria Pictures, the cinema operated until the late 1950s. The hall remained closed as a cinema until 1986, when Ron and Diane Bayley established Mount Vic Flicks."
From an article in The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend of 27 September, 2014:
"Cue Katoomba couple Adam Cousins and Kirsten Mulholland, who bought the single-screen Mount Vic Flicks in the NSW Blue Mountains ("Cinema the way it used to be") last year when the previous operators, Ron and Diane Bayley, retired after 27 years. Patrons cheered when they announced they had found a buyer and for Mulholland, a high-school drama teacher who has kept her job to help finance the venture, it was the risky realisation of a dream."
["The Bayleys farewelled Mount Vic at a sell-out screening of the 1957 British comedy The Smallest Show On Earth, about a young couple who inherit a run-down cinema and find a way to make a go of it before leaving for Samarkand."]
About the building, the NSW Government, Office of Environment & Heritage website Mount Vic Flicks Cinema has the following:
"The former Public Hall is historically significant because it appears to be the first purpose designed public hall in Mt Victoria and also the first cinema to operate there. Its relatively simple architecture, which shows some Inter War Free Classical influence and is quite intact, reflects the economically uncertain times in which it was built. The building has been a focus for community interaction for over seventy five years and has gained further importance as a result of its adaptive reuse as a cinema"
And on the physical nature of the building:
"The Mount Vic Flicks Cinema is a large brick building with a hipped metal clad roof that has gablets at either end of the ridge and is covered with corrugated iron, and a relatively elaborate porch giving access of Harley Avenue. The facade of the building is symmetrically designed and the porch is emphasised by cement render finishes and decorative elements that show the influence of the Inter War Free Classical style. The porch is divided into three sections horizontally by mouldings and is contained between massive piers that extend for the full height of the structure. Its parapet takes the form of a simple pediment and is inscribed with the date "1934" at its apex; the tops of the piers are capped by glass and metal lanterns. The middle portion of the porch has a large panel inscribed with the words "Public Hall". Low painted brick walls extend from the sides of the porch and continue along the street boundary where they are interrupted by pedestrian gates..
"The hall has been extended on either side; the extensions have been constructed of brick and have skillion roofs covered with corrugated iron. Windows generally consist of timber framed double hung sashes, a number of which are divided vertically by glazing bars. Windows at the front of the building have lintels of cement render and splayed rendered sills."
Visited: 15 December, 2016