Report - The Carlton / Gaumont Cinema - Norwich - May 2012 & May 2013

[Speed]

Our first visit to the Carlton was the absolute definition of cinema exploring. Promising building, tricky entrance, edgy explore with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, dead ends, highs and lows. In the end tho it just left us wanting more. After spending two hours or more trying to get into the main auditorium via the loft, basement, fly tower and various other ancillary rooms we finally made it inside only to set off the most comedy 'wild west bank robber' alarm ever..

This year we returned again for another go. The power was now off which meant the alarm was too.. Good for full access, not so good for photos! The place turned out little bit of a disappointment. Not the worst ive done by far but could have been soo much more to see. The basement was modern and the projection room was an office. Its saving grace is probably the 3 arc rectifiers still in situe, one still in its original transport crate!

A look back at cinematic history of Norwich?s Mecca Bingo - News - Norwich Advertiser​

Anyone glancing at this depressingly metal clad featureless building today would be hard pressed to imagine that this was once an Art Deco super cinema. It opened as the Carlton Cinema in 1932, was enlarged and reopened, with double the number of seats – now 1,920, only two years later in 1934. Two years after that it was taken over by County Cinemas and then by Odeon Theatres Ltd.

After the city’s Gaumont cinema was closed and demolished in 1959, Rank rebranded the Carlton Cinema with the Gaumont name which lasted until closure in 1973

It reopened as a Top Rank Bingo Club immediately and remained a bingo club until closing as a Mecca Bingo Club in around May 2011.

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