Built by Henry Billings and Sons in 1913-14 at a cost of £15,000, as the Carlton Cinema. The structure is of reinforced concrete, steel and brick with a façade of Doulton’s White Carraraware. Four storeys, three bay symmetrical front (painted ground floor) with end towers and a central bowed window. W. Coutts, chairman of directors of the Carlton Theatre Company Ltd. employed Charles T. Ruthen, architect and local Liberal councillor, to design the building.

The ground floor had seats for 600 people with another 300 in the circle. There was also a lounge at the back of the circle and another spacious lounge on the first floor. The ceiling of the lounge at the rear of the circle was formed of concrete, richly panelled and supported upon polished marble columns and pilasters. The general scheme of decoration was carried out in an elaborately moulded and enriched fibrous plaster in dead white. The first manager of the cinema was Mr Graham Jacobs, former manager of the Ystalyfera Playhouse. The Carlton Cinema closed in October 1977 and the building now houses Waterstones bookshop, with the original spiral staircase intact, leading to a first floor cafe.

M. Powel. RCAHMW. October 2020.

Sources:

The Cambria Daily Leader, 29 September 1913, p.3
The Cambria Daily Leader, 31 January 1914, p.5
Cadw Listing summary 11602
Kinematograph Weekly, 15 January 1914, p.40