page_title: Marlborough Cinema
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Marlborough Cinema / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: 1909 Plans and sections of Marlborough Cinema
context_page_description: Marlborough Cinema was a single-screen cinema hall located on Beach Road in Singapore. It was in operation from 1909, before the building was demolished in the early 1970s. to make way for the construction of Shaw Tower.
context_section_description: Marlborough Cinema was built on Beach Road, on a site known as the Raffles Reclamation Ground, which was created from past reclamation projects in the 1840s and 1890s
  Building plans dated 1909 showed that Marlborough Cinema was a structure of simple construction: a large, corrugated zinc hall with a gabled roof. It was situated on a narrow, elongated plot of land. Wooden benches lined its interior, and were separated by aisles.
  From oral interviews, a recessed orchestral pit was presumed to have taken up space in front of the screen between 1909 and 1930, to house musicians who would play accompanying music to silent films.
  The topmost photo, dating to the 1920s, shows a flat-arch entrance way, with marquees displaying posters of movies currently showing at the cinema.
  Renovations carried out in 1930 wired the cinema hall for sound, and electric fans were also installed. The wooden benches were replaced by flip-up chairs, expanding the seating from 550 to 682, and presumably filling up the orchestral pit.
caption: Plans and sections of Marlborough Cinema dated 1909, showing a simple gabled structure that was internally lined with wooden benches.
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