# Elysium Cinema, Swansea, South Wales



## sinnerman

*Elysium Cinema and Swansea Labour Club, Swansea, South Wales*

Only one way to describe this absolutely mint one of the best places ive been in a while. visited with Dangerous Dave.

The Elysium Cinema opened on High Street Swansea in 11th April 1914 its single auditorium was designed by Ward & Ward of the Strand, London and seated 900 in Circle and Stalls. The Cinema was equiped by Kalee who also provided the cast iorn seats the audtorium was also equiped with a stage for variety acts which is still there today. The building was also home to the Swansea Dock Workers Hall a working mans club and later home to the labour party in the City. The Cinema closed in 1960 and became an independent bingo clubd, which had closed by 1994. Leaving only the labour club open in the ground floor of the building which also closed in 1998 and the building has been boarded up ever since. THe whole building is under threat of demolition as the council have been executing compulsory purchase orders in the area pending a re generation project. 

The Cinema, workings manclub to follow












The Lobby later used as an amusement arcade





Change booth.......... Oh Whats Occuring?





Bingo hall reception with hideous wood paneling and suspended ceiling





Above the suspended celing was a beautiful plaster work dome toped with this stained glass window.





Auditorium Doors.





Bingo Hall on two tiers where the stalls would have been










Bingo Callers Console





"Modern" computerised bingo.

























Above a suspended ceiling the Circle seats are still in place. 





These have sat idle for 48 years










The first of meny abandoned arcade machines and gamblers we came across





Behind the auditoruim in the offices was the gambler graveyard





Projection Room full of old cinema seats and old bingo desks





A Kalee cinema seat





Part of the projection equipment?





From the projection booth a stairwell lead down it looked like it had been sealed off since the 60's


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## spikey

Nice pics, kalee was a make of cinema projectors from the 1930, probably worth a fortune to a collector


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## iwaniwan

screenroom shots are absolutely fab, great find


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## sinnerman

The Swansea and District Labour Hall and Institute on the ground floor only the bar was accessable but it was mint just like it had been left yesterday not 10 years ago.


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## Richard Davies

That's a very nice selection of photos.

The circle looked surreal with the top half the the false ceiling hanging there. 

I'm always amazed by the places which have remained undisturbed for years, the club looked like it was closed last week.


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## spacepunk

Fantastic stuff, loving all that bingo paraphernalia, esp the old fruit machine and balls!


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## thompski

I like the mix of Edwardian grandeur and garish 1970s bingo hall addon's.

Well documented both of you


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## dangerous dave

my shots came out very badly bloody focus assist did not work that well :icon_evil ive got a few ok ones return vist + search blaster is in order my shots to follow soon


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## sqwasher

Hey great report!  Specially liking the circle seats hidden away & that space invader arcade machine! Very cool!  Looking forward to any more pics you might get from here.


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## smileysal

Like this. Love the arched ceiling above the suspended one, really like the glass dome in the roof. Love all the older cinema parts, much better than the bingo add ons.

Like the Institue stage, (they all seem to have stages like this), again, like the ceiling in there the best.

Cheers,

 Sal


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## Lightbuoy

Fantastic stuff!

The ceiling lights & stained glass above those horrible false ceilings are just amazing. Nice spot with the Kalee seating -never knew that Company also did seats! 

Lb:jimlad:


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## johno23

Brilliant find guys and some cracking shots of long lost areas and things.Its a real shame when they demolish things like this as they can never be replaced.Looking forward to more pictures when you get them


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## sinnerman

There will be more we were in there for four hours and there was still a few sections to be looked at neither of us fancied the wooden ladders up to the top of the fly tower but in hind sight it has to be climbed.


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## Lightbuoy

I will certainly be watching this space for more pics then! :yes:


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## GeorgeK

Thank you for posting, great to see a place where everything has not been smashed  wonder why people who leave such great stuff behind when they close a business...


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## OSPA

Right thats it, im going to pack a few things and get in the car for the long drive to Swansea, I really wanna see this place. So it was a labour club, cinema AND a bingo hall? How often do you get that combination?! The one thing that always amazes me when I go exploring is the amount of stuff that is left behind, you'd think that when they closed places down, they would send someone in to clear the place out, lucky for us they dont I suppose.
Great pics!


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## Parkus.

Space Invaders! 

Personally I love exploring cinema's, probably more than anything else.
Respect to you mate


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## dangerous dave

right now for my shots some are a bit crap due to the auto focus was being a tosser this is what i have so far more to come after a revist 






the bingo hall






the top seats of the cinima these would be the original seating 






the emergency lighting charger and battery supply





















stage lights and control 





































the bingo desk































the labour club


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## sinnerman

There not too bad fella, we do need to go back though some search blaster action is needed in there.


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## Foxylady

Superb find, chaps. Love those old cinema seats and the stained glass dome and especially that old wooden door with the 'no smoking - private' signage...looks almost sinister and much more interesting for seeing what's in there.


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## fire*fly

great photos guys I love that those circle seats have been there all those years


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## King Al

Super find guys, that place looks like a real time capsual! The old space invaders machine is great


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## cogito

Jeebus, the amount of stuff left in that place! Looks rather awesome.


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## sinnerman

Ive added a bit of background history on the Elysium and some beter pics to my website :

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/elysium.php


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## Lightbuoy

Thanks Sinnerman -a well constructed & interesting report on ya website

Lb:jimlad:


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## dangerous dave

access closed as of today its been sealed again


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## foxclub

Awwwww, sealed off????

We were gonna make this our first explore, we were really excited about this place 

Its a shame, looked amazing!


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## sinnerman

Keep an eye on it things have a habit of reopening again, but maybe not for a little while.


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## Bad wolf

Kudos to you!!,been past it many times and wondered what lies inside. Now thanks to you i have an idea.Thinking about it i think in the dim and distant past i have been inside. I think the local labor mp used to hold a surgery there and i went to see him once!!. Thanks for taking the time and effort.


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## ferryboi

*owners*

Hi guys, does any 1 know the current owners of this place, my grandad used to run the bar in this place for a bit and it would be nice to know who the current owners are

thanks
daniel gibson


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## Scruffyone

looks like there is some 'renovation' going on. the took the front porchy bit off. I think some of it fell off and hit someone.  (If anyone is gonna try and get in though, I'd love to tag along)


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## bonecollector

Love the pics of the old electrical equipment and drink pumps.
Space invaders. Classic.


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## doras exploras

wow thats mad, my grand dad used to run that place up until about the early 90's, remember alot of it really clearly, so sad to see it in ruins now but really cool to see it none the less. cant remember the date he gave it up but to members they were selling bottles of holsten pills for 99p.

if anyone wants to go take a look as a group please get in touch as we'd love to go for a wonder around

scruffyone, maybe if you wanted to meet us in swansea we could all go have a mooch around and sus it out


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