La Charette, officially deemed the smallest cinema in Wales, has closed after fifty years, the BBC reported yesterday. The 23-seat cinema was built by electrician Gwyn Phillips and housed in an old railway carriage in his back garden in Gorseinon, near Swansea. Although a club has maintained the cinema since his death in 1996, the costs of maintaining the building have now proved prohibitive and the doors of this tiny building, which boasted a wide screen and surround sound, have finally shut. The report states that it will be ‘demolished in the near future’. Undeniably a part of our national screen heritage. Is there anyone out there willing to give it home?
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