downtown Movie theaters?

I was walking down Dundas the other afternoon and passed by the old Capitol Theatre near Clarence.
The sign outside the entrance reads...























Yeah right.

What ever happened to all the movie theatres that were downtown?
How long has it been since you were able to see a first run movie in downtown London?
In the early 80's there were quite a few theatres downtown...
There was a theatre in the London Mews, a mall that existed on the block between Dundas and King street. There was a theatre on Clarence street between Dundas and King. There was the Capitol pictured above directly across the street from that, and the New Yorker repertory cinema on the corner of Richmond and York. There was even one on King street i seem to recall, a few doors west of Novacks, that used to show the Rocky Horror Picture show from time to time.

But now they're long gone.

Once the theatres in Galleria opened all the others seemed to evaporate, some quickly, others over time.
The theatre on Clarence became Ace Arcade...



...it looks like some kind of egyptian saloon now.













The Capitol on Dundas has been 'Temporarily closed' for the past 20 years...






















And what was once The New Yorker became a giant beer tent, without the tent.















The Galleria Cinema's have become Rainbow Cinema, a discount second run cinema, the only theatre for MILES in and around the downtown core.

Doesn't it seem logical that if you're trying to restore a dead city core you replace some of the things that were lost? where are the movie theatres?