Where is La Charrette?

La Charrette is in South Wales, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 51.5746°, -4.0007°.

Theatres · South Wales

La Charrette

La Charrette in Wales South, United Kingdom.

William Street, Mumbles, Swansea - geograph.org.uk - 4162687 — Jaggery — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit: 2 h–3 h

La Charrette is a cinema or movie theatre in Wales South, United Kingdom. Britain's listed cinemas span Edwardian picture palaces, Art Deco super-cinemas of the 1930s, and the surviving independent neighbourhood houses.

Photo gallery

From the Wikipedia article

La Charrette was for several decades the smallest cinema in the UK. It closed in February 2008. A tiny, 23-seat venue, sited in a back garden in the town of Parkmill, near Swansea, 'La Charrette' (French for 'the carriage') was built from a disused railway carriage. With flock wallpaper and hand-operated curtains, 'La Charrette' began showing films in 1953.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

The cinema was originally constructed and run by Gwyn Phillips, an electrician who fell in love with the movies in his youth while working as a projectionist. After Mr Phillips died in 1996, 'La Charrette' was kept open by his widow, Rita. A meticulously kept, hand-written record of every film shown at the cinema reveals that the first movie to be screened there in 1953 was Reluctant Heroes. That same year, locals were able to see Oliver Twist, King Kong and Winchester ‘73. Later decades saw the screening of The French Connection and even the controversial Straw Dogs. More recently, Saving Private Ryan, Elizabeth and The Queen were shown.

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