San Roque Cinema

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1951 · Authors: Antonio Cardona Aragón, José Luis Jiménez Domínguez

This is another of the neighbourhood cinemas that proliferated in the city after the Civil War.

The San Roque neighbourhood had this cinema designed in 1949 by architects Antonio Cardona and José Luis Jiménez Domínguez for owner José Betancor.

The building, with an eclectic façade, stands out for its construction details. Regional elements are combined with expressionist ones, very much in vogue at the time. Inside, the trapezoidal floor plan housed a capacity for nearly 800 people, distributed between the stalls and a mezzanine or amphitheatre.

San Roque Cinema was inaugurated on 23 February 1951 with the screening of the American swashbuckler film The Bandit of Castilla , directed by Vincent Sherman in 1948 and starring Errol Flynn in the lead role. Ticket prices ranged between four and five pesetas depending on the location (upper or lower).

This elegant neighbourhood cinema operated until the early 1970s. The building then fell into evident neglect. In 1997, the city council acquired it to incorporate it into the Administrative Services facilities of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). However, the university facilities were built in an adjoining building, leaving the former cinema building reserved for future rehabilitation and intended for cultural and recreational use. None of this has happened yet, as it is currently boarded up and in a ruinous state.

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