1911 – Former Cinema, 72 Grafton Street, Dublin

Known originally as the Grafton Picture House, the cinema opened on Easter Monday, 11 April 1911, at 72 Grafton Street. It was executed to the designs of Richard Caulfield Orpen, in the Tudor-Bethan style that flourished in the early twentieth century. Opened on 17 April 1911 with the silent film ‘After Fifty Years’. Its capacity was expanded in 1913 to 620 seats. In 1929 Robinson & Keefe carried out further alterations, including the installation of a sound system. By the 1950s it was showing continuous programmes of newsreels, cartoons, and short films featuring comedy acts such as The Three Stooges. It finally closed as a cinema on 1 December 1973. For a time, it was a small shopping arcade called 5th Avenue, now a retail store, a fine auditorium ceiling survives on the first floor