Fawcett Street, Havelock Cinema

The cinema stood on the corner of High street west and Fawcett Street and was built on the site of Havelock house (burnt down in 1989) from which it took its name. The cinema opened on the 16th December 1915 and was a project of Provincial Cinematograph Theatres(PCT). It was the first cinema in Sunderland to play “talkies” in 1929. The entrance of the cinema covered the corner of High Street West and Fawcett Street and was topped by a square tower in renaissance revival style. The cinema seated 1504. It was renamed Gaumont in 1960 and closed on the 15th July 1963 and demolished.