On my walk to McDonalds for some breakfast this morning I decided to actually look around at the decaying buildings around me. There are admittedly a lot in my neighborhood, but one that stood out more than any other was easily this large one labeled “Carlton Theatre”.
Some quick research tells me the building was initially opened all the way back in 1928 for silent films, their maiden show being “Lonesome Ladies” an American comedy by First National Pictures, a production company that was absorbed by Warner Brothers the following year.
The theatre had a very standard theatre stage setup, but was crowned with a large green and gold glass dome roof. Roman mosaics and painted panels lined the walls to give it a more artistic feel.
The words “A picture is a poem without words“ was inscribed above the proscenium, something that became sort of irrelevant as talkies were actively rising to prominence starting in 1927, a year before the theatre‘s first showing.
The theatre consistently played second fiddle to theatres that were more centered in the city such as the Cecil which took the Carlton’s organs before it was bombed and destroyed in World War 2. As such, theatre operations fizzled out over time and ended with its closure in April of 1967. The building was converted into a Mecca bingo hall until 2008, meaning they building existed for one year more as a bingo hall than it did as a theatre… which is kind of sad to a theatre nerd such as myself, but I digress.
The Carlton has sat abandoned and decaying on Anlaby Road for 14 years now and shows no signs of a revival, but it remains one of the few evident symbols of the past in the area and the culture that once was.
Dakota Morrill
-Padoo Homes
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