City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2and served the new Housing Commission estate population. It included one of the new driveinbottle shops. After the hotel was destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt in the 1990s to include agaming room and bistro (Edge, 2004: 48, 52).CinemasDarebin’s first experience of moving pictures was at a concert at the Primitive MethodistChurch in 1897. By 1910 Northcote people could attend regular films in the town hall, or at ahall in Thornbury known as the Thornbury Picture Palace. Darebin’s first purpose-builtpicture theatre was the Northcote Theatre, in the heart of Northcote on the corner of Highand Bastings Streets. Although no longer used as such, it is believed to be Victoria’s oldestsurviving picture theatre (Lemon, 1983:131, 155, 160-1).The years following the First World War saw the proliferation of cinemas in the suburbs andsome grand picture palaces such as the Capitol Theatre in the city. Several theatres were builtduring the 1920s in Darebin, including the Regent in Thornbury, the Star, later St James, inPreston, and the Plaza in Northcote (Lemon, 1983:200. 213-4, 225, 259; Carroll & rule,1985: 150-1).In 1921, the lavish Westgarth Theatre opened. It was designed and built by local builder JohnSeccull, who was at the start of his career as one of Melbourne’s large building firms. TheWestgarth has weathered many changes of taste in entertainment, dismissing its orchestra andintroducing the talkies in the late 1920s, as the other theatres did. Following the arrival oftelevision many suburban theatres closed. The Westgarth switched to showing Greek films inthe 1970s, and in 1987 re-invented itself as Valhalla, showing ‘art-house, nostalgic, foreign andat times quirky films’ to fill a niche market. The theatre was renovated and restored in the1990s and reverted to a regular suburban cinema. More recently it has been divided intoseveral small theatres to attract patrons through a choice of program. The Westgarth isMelbourne’s oldest cinema still in operation (Lemon, 1983: 200, 266; ‘Westgarth Theatre 80 thAnniversary’: 4).In the 1950s the new drive-in theatres made their appearance in Melbourne. In 1955 thesecond Skyline drive-in opened in Plenty Road, Reservoir (Carroll 1985:150). A night at thedrive-in was a family outing, which saved on baby sitters. There were playgrounds for thechildren, who were usually in their pyjamas, so that they were ready for bed when the familyarrived home. The drive-in was also popular with courting couples. The Reservoir Skyline siteis now a retirement home.The introduction of television in 1956 sounded the death knell for suburban cinemas inMelbourne. Most of Darebin’s cinemas were closed by 1959 and were either converted to otheruses or demolished. Only the Westgarth continued operation as a cinema as noted above.Figure 35 Westgarth Cinema, 2004Photographer: Rohan Storey[National Trust (Victoria)FN: b6619]60