Glass

Inside Marina Picture Palace on Gardeners Road, Rosebery, a shelf holds a collection of glass panes, rectangular and curved, their lower edges sitting in accumulated dust and grit. The shelf itself is edged with flaking green paint. Behind them, the teal wall has given way to moisture over many years, lifting in broad curling sheets that peel back to expose the rough plaster beneath. A weathered brown partition with a small metal latch occupies the right edge of the frame. Nothing here is theatrical. It is the back-of-house residue of a building left alone for a long time. Marina Picture Palace was designed by architect William de Putron and opened on 28 May 1927, making it the first purpose-built cinema to survive in the former Botany Bay local government area. De Putron was not simply a hired designer; he was a member of the consortium that built and operated the theatre, alongside builder William Henry Rumble and cinema entrepreneur Eric Christensen, who placed a gold sovereign in the brickwork during construction. The building was constructed in the Inter-War free-classical style, with a symmetrical rendered facade, stepped parapet, and small roundels to each side. Ownership passed through the Ward brothers in 1935, then to Mascot Theatres Pty Ltd under the Snider and Dean circuit in January 1939. In 1967, Chris Louis of Louis Film Company purchased it in honour of his wife, whose name was also Marina. The Louis family operated it as a Greek-language cinema through the era before SBS television, then converted the stalls into a video and DVD shop after the cinema closed on 8 February 1984. The shop itself closed around 2002, and the building has remained vacant since. This photograph was made in 2019. The building is listed as a local heritage item under the Bayside Local Environmental Plan 2021. It is the last of six cinemas that once served the Botany Bay district.