A 120-year-old former cinema building in Newry city centre is set to be brought back to life by a local husband-and-wife.
The site on Hill Street, commonly referred to as the ‘Frontier Cinema’ building, has been closed for the past number of years after most recently being used as a gym.
The current building was opened in 1907 by the Irish National Foresters’ Benefit Society and the hall, which housed the Frontier Cinema, was added in 1912.
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Its use as an entertainment space – originally a cinema and later a bingo hall – is what the building is best known for in the city.
Colin O’Callaghan, a local planning consultant who is hoping to bring Newry’s historic Frontier cinema building back to life PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN
Now, it is about to embark on the next stage of its life after being purchased by local planning consultants Colin and Caoimhe O’Callaghan.
Speaking to The Irish News, Mr O’Callaghan said that while future plans for the building have not been decided, he envisages the space once again filled with people.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s the lazy option just because there’s a stage here,” he said.
“I personally can visualise a band, a comedian, or some sort of performer on that stage.
“My own vision, I suppose, I can see a crowd in here, just having a good time and that’s probably what I think is needed in Newry as well.”
The interior of Newry’s historic Frontier Cinema, which local planning consultant Colin O’Callaghan hopes to bring back to life. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN
The couple’s takeover of the former Frontier Cinema building comes as the wider area is due to benefit from redevelopment plans.
Mr O’Callaghan said that they decided to purchase it after restoring their own office building, which is a listed site.
While historic, the Frontier Cinema is not listed.
“We felt that this would be in some ways less challenging than the listed building we had done but equally, it’s a much bigger building,” he said.
“Whilst logistically it will be easier and so on, financially it’s going to be a much bigger undertaking than anything that we’ve done before.”
Mr O’Callaghan said that they hope to keep the main features of the building, which is structurally sound, intact.
“We feel it’s something of a landmark, it’s iconic,” he said.
“Even the red brick, back at a time in that era, you have the old gasworks down there and that would have been a lot of red brick buildings and so on.
“But a lot of those red brick buildings, they’ve all disappeared or things have been altered or are done away.
“When you look at the prominence of the bays and the original stonework and balustrades – architecturally, we think it has plenty of merit.”
The pair have heard “a lot of stories” from people in the area of their memories of the building.
“They remember going to see certain movies in the cinema and things like that,” he said.
“People do certainly have fond memories of it.
“From the feedback that we’ve been receiving, it seems to be that there is a desire to keep a building that has some sort of an entertainment type use.
“We also think it would be a shame to have a building like this and not have it open to the public.”