22 October 2016:

The #LyricTheatreFitzroy in its last days hosting the #roneempty show. The building opened sat 4 Nov. 1911, making it the oldest intact purpose built cinema interior left in Melbourne I think. These firstgen cinemas were simple flat floored halls, to pack them in, often on benches (2500 in this case) to watch flickering silent shorts with a piano accompaniment. They were so popular they didn’t have to bother with making them look nice. Though there is some remnant #painteddecoration on the end wall which #rone has kept as a frame for his characteristic enigmatic pretty girl portrait. The building will be replaced by 10 storeys of flats. The facade had been wrecked when flat metal was placed over it in the 70s, you can see old streetview showing the exploratory holes. Sadly the #CityofYarra hadn’t listed the interior (or any interior), though after this debacle, they are looking at the other four old cinemas in Yarra. Only first two pics mine.

Update : in the end none of those interiors were listed. First pic not mine, nor the ones from when it was a shop. The apartments were completed in 2020.

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