The Alhambra

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The Alhambra in Cape Town

This was regarded as South Africa’s finest "Atmospheric" style theatre, and was designed in 1928 by architect P. Rogers Cooke. It opened in 1929 and was one of Cape Town’s major cinemas till it was closed in January 1972 and demolished in 1974.


The Alhambra in Pretoria

The Alhambra Hall and/or The Alhambra Theatre, Pretoria (1889?-1903)

In the late 1880s (?) Reck's Lokal, a the tavern of (Friederick?) Karl Reck's South African Hotel and Tavern on the western side of Church Square was converted to a theatre with room for an audience of 350 and “well adapted for dramatic entertainment, concerts and balls”. The tavern had been the place where the original Geselliger Verein von Deutschen in Pretoria was founded. This later became the Deutscher Verein.

Binge (1969) claims that the converted venue was initially called The Alhambra Theatre. The names The Alhambra or The Alhambra Hall also occur.


See further: The President Theatre