your comments
Tony Roberts, Canada
I grew up in Rhiwbina in the late 60's and early 70's. I remember sneaking into the Monico with some friends to see my first X rated movie - The Graduate... seems laughable now. Somehow we managed to open the emergency crash doors at the front of the cinema and crawl in under the first 20 or so rows and pop up 'unnoticed' into our seats. Also spent many Saturday mornings there for the matinee.
Helen Parsons from Blackwood
We lived in Homelands Road in Rhiwbina for 16 years until 2005 and my husband and our next door neighbour fought fiercely against demolishing the Monico Cinema. They held meetings and rallied neighbours and councillors, all to no avail. Sadly, my husband Julian passed away just after the flats were completed and I moved away from the area. My daughter's first job was an usherette there and her partner was the projectionist and that was how they met. They are very happy. We have lovely memories of the Monico cinema and living in Rhiwbina.
Tony C Paulsen, Bunbury, W Australia
As a nipper of 7 or so my first visit to the Monico,(staying with Nana at 66 Pantbach Rd) I boldly walked up to the ticket counter with my sixpenny bit in my hot little hand and was told by the lady that I could not go in because it was an A film. Nobody told me about the rating system for films did they!!! So I went back to Nannas in tears (quick learning curve). Later I was relief projectionist there on and off for many years. I remember the first time I did that, had to ride me bike all the way from St Mellons, that was a late night for sure!! Was very sad to see reports via friends who sent me newspaper clippings of the end of an era. I did call in to see the place when I visited in 2000 and had a chat to the then owner Brian Bull. Funny thing is he and I look quite alike.
Geoff Lewis, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
I lived in Pedair Erw Road, Birchgrove, and my first movie-going experience was "Dunkirk" at the Monico, with my father. It's been 12 years since I was in Cardiff, but I keep an eye on things through the internet.
Matt Phillips - Ystrad Mynach
Flash Gordon, Grease, Empire Strikes Back, so many films, so many memories. To see different places in Whitchurch disappear over the years has been hard. The Post Office sorting depot on Heol-y-Forlan was devastating for me, like having my childhood crushed. Playing football in the grounds (jumpers for goal posts, pretending to be Mark Hughes or Ian Rush etc). To see the Monico being pulled down was dreadful, so many films, so many memories. By the the way, those flats in its place are an unbelievable eyesore!!!
Lyn Harrison
I first visited the Monico at the premier of Zulu Dawn - this was the Welsh premier to mark the cinema's reopening. Sad about its closure.
Monica Cookson, Auckland, NZ, formerly Sydney, Australia
I grew up in Heol Caerhys, Rhiwbina and was always teased about Monico/Monica. A friend sent me a newspaper clipping about the closure of the Monico - great nostalgia for the saturday morning sessions in the early 60's - saw the first Elvis Presley film there. I return to Cardiff every year - so many things seem visibly the same but cannot truly remain unchanged. A great place to grow up - the Stables behind the Butcher's Arms, walks up Rhiwbina Hill to collect bluebells and the David's sweet shop in the lane in the village, blackberry picking and the local girl guides ... all seemed so safe and endless.
Gareth Williams, Rhiwbina
I currently live in Rhiwbina and here's a real lump-in-the-throat story that aptly typifies that we don't know what we've lost until it's gone. As the Monico was being demolished I was driving past with my kids and waiting at the traffic lights looked in the mirror. My youngest, who was four at the time, was looking at the digger on the pile of rubble and I noticed that he looked upset, with a big, fat tear rolling down his cheek. On asking him what was the matter he simply replied "I saw my first film in the Monico". It brought a tear to my eye and still does.
How many other children had their first cinema experiences here and feel the same way I wonder? There's no point crying over spilled milk but I can't help thinking what could have been had a community fought together to keep, renovate and cherish 'the old picture house' instead of the present, anodyne, concrete slab of buy-to-lets.
Bryan Divall from Singapore
I lived at 90 Pantbach Road in the '40s and '50s. On Saturday mornings I went to the matinees with my brother Derek. In those days the Monico still had the wartime camouflage paint job. Later I used to be a Saturday night regular with Peter Brennan, Chris Hitchen and Roger Winter. It was something to do before going to the Butchers Arms. In those days there was a thug who terrorised Rhiwbina youth looking for fights. We had a scare one Saturday when he and his ne'er-do-well mates came and sat behind us at the Monico. I thought that Rex Willis owned that cinema out on the Cowbridge Road in Ely.
Benn Willis, Cathays
I am devastated. This place was and always will be a huge part of my childhood. I remember Uncle Ian on the saturday morning club, and to me the Monico invented the Pearl and Dean theme tune. Very sad to see the place go just for some lifeless stucture to replace it. It should have been a listed building.
Nigel Thomas, Perth, Western Australia
Having been in the fortunate position of living "just round the corner" from the Monico I have fond memories indeed! The Saturday morning screenings in the early '60s kept us kids enthralled (on the Saturdays that we didn't go to the Empire Pool - there's another "icon" gone). I remember that two of us would sneak in for the price of one - rolling up the admission ticket and slipping it through the hole in the window of the gents, with the one on the outside saying "I've just been to Mr Powell's for some sweets". Shock, horror, shame on me. The fact that the Monico kept going on well after I'd left the country (not deported for ripping off the cinema) is laudable. It's a crying shame that its demise has come about - and that the style of building has not been maintained. I, for one, will certainly miss it on my visits "home".
Andrew Millar, Portland Oegon USA
As a lad from Whitchurch I fondly recall seeing James Bond films,Wuthering Heights and most memorable of all,The Italian Job (the original with Michael Caine)at the Monaco.This would have been 1970 or so, I moved to the US in my teens but make it back quite frequently to visit, losing landmarks like the theatre just shows how time keeps passing.
John Wright,Ottawa,Canada
I lived in St John's Crescent in the 30s and 40s and was a contemporary of Alan Akers at Whitchurch High School. I am looking at him in a Third Form photograph right now. The cinema in Whitchurch on Old Church Road was the Rialto. I was a regular there on Saturday mornings to see the serials - Cowboys and Indians usually. I also went downhill to the Masons Arms or to the Royal Oak and moved to Canada in 1955.
Paul Vincent, Cardiff
I use to live in the same road as the Monico. Memories of queuing up for the Saturday morning children's films are still very vivid. Its sad to see it go but I think the previous owner should be applauded for keeping it going for as long as he did. The old film projector in the foyer added a real sense of nostalgia to the visit too.
Tony John, Cardiff
For John Akers - the cinema in Whitchurch was the Rialto. The flats built on the site are called Rialto Court.
Claire, Llanishen
I loved this cinema. it wasn't far from my best friend's house and we spent many evenings queueing outside in the cold. we kept visiting it until it closed. sad that it's gone.
Alex Johnston, Bath
I was the structural engineer for the residential blocks that replaced the Cinema. I'm a huge fan of cinema buildings, especially because they contain so many rich memories for so many people. I was a bit uncomfortable with the project when it first appeared in our office because I hate to see older cinemas destroyed, but it was obvious that the the building had come to the end of its useful life and it looked awful with its orange cladding. It's a shame, but things must move on. The new houses and flats represent a very high quality addition to the area, and hopefully the infusion of new people to the area might develop the need for another cinema in the vicinity.
Ron Scott from Qld., Australia
I used to go to the Monico on the occasional Sat afternoon about 1947. Being 8yrs at the time I usually went with a chum but on this occasion went alone. The Monico was Showing "Phantom of The Opera". Halfway through the film I was so scared I fled up the Isle, ran all the way to Rhwbina up the centre of Beulah Rd, it being dark (no traffic then) and trees each side of the road - no street lights then. I must have broken speed records, Monico to Coed Glas Rd.
John Smith from Abertridwr
Strange, only talking about the Monico last week, how we use to go every Sat morn to see Batman,Zoro and the like. This must have been in the mid sixties, I use to live in Llanishen then. Now I resign myself to Bingo four times a week!
Alun Rees from Cheltenham
I remember my first visit to the cinema without my parents. I was 7, and went with 2 friends to see 'Goliath & The Barbarians' at the Monico. We sat through two full performances starting at 2pm on Saturday until we were eventually hauled out by worried parents sometime after 7 in the evening in deep trouble.
John Akers, Panama
When I used to live in St Margarets Place during late 40s early 50s the Monico was my Saturday night place to be. In Whitchurch there was also a cinema, which was owned by Cardiff rugby scrum half Rex Willis - does anyone remember its name? After cinemas I went downhill to pubs like the Masons Arms etc, before joing the Army and eventually in 1956 moving to Central America. Saludos.
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