Look up past the crumbling facade and you'll see flying buttresses on the roof, like a whale carcass. The last of Hong Kong's post-WWII luxury theatres, it opened in 1952 with Just for You starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, and for years, catching a flick here was a big deal. The buttresses in a Soviet Constructivist style served to hold the roof from above, allowing for a large pillarless hall, a truly avant-garde design at the time.

Under enormous pressure from hungry developers, a campaign to have the building awarded protected-heritage status was underway at time of research.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Chun Yeung Street Market

0.16 MILES

Hop on a tram bound for North Point, and past Fortress Hill you’ll turn into a narrow street teeming with market stalls and old tenement buildings. This…

2. Tin Hau Temple

0.59 MILES

Hong Kong Island’s most famous Tin Hau (Goddess of the Sea) temple has lent its name to an entire neighbourhood, a metro station and a street. It has been…

3. Victoria Park

0.67 MILES

Built on land reclaimed from the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Victoria Park is the biggest patch of public greenery on Hong Kong Island. The best time to…

4. Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

0.72 MILES

Not so long ago the waterfront in Causeway Bay was a mass of junks and sampans huddling in the typhoon shelter for protection, but these days it’s nearly…

5. Lin Fa Temple

0.77 MILES

You'll recognise this unusual-looking temple by its semi-octagonal hall and its verandah with Western-style balustrades, both of which have survived…

6. Para Site

0.87 MILES

Art fans will be genuinely thrilled to discover this hidden gem of a gallery and exhibition space on the top floor of an office tower. Created and curated…

7. Noonday Gun

0.91 MILES

The sun may have long since set on the British Empire, but this Hotchkiss 3lb naval gun still fires forlornly into history each day at noon, a colonial…

8. St Mary's Church

0.92 MILES

This outlandish Anglican church was born in the 1930s through an apparent marriage between a Chinese temple and a Christian house of worship. Its red…