Brewery’s blockbuster plans for historic cinema in Swansea
ASwansea brewery is moving into a historic cinema and says it may show outdoor movies there in the summer.
Boss Brewing chiefs say they will spend £250,000 converting the old Landore cinema into a brewery and tap room bar.
Swansea planning officers have given the scheme the go-ahead and builders are already on site.
“It’s all systems go,” said Boss Brewing director Sarah John.
“I’m really excited about the move. It’s a quirky building with a bit of history.”
Ms John said the Neath Road site was 10 times larger than the current premises in Llansamlet, and that a new canning and bottling facility would be created there, giving the brewery more control over the process. “That’s massive for us,” she said. The opening hours for the brewery premises would be Monday to Friday from 3pm to midnight, Saturday from 11am to midnight, and Sunday from 11am to 10pm.
Planning officers said the entrance to the tap room bar would be a significant distance from the nearest property on Morfa Terrace.
They said the scheme would bring a vacant listed building, most recently used as a builders’ merchants, back into use.
Their report said: “The proposed use of the building as a brewery and tap room would complement the surrounding leisure and retail uses and the regeneration aspirations for the [Hafod-Morfa] copperworks site, without resulting in any significant impacts upon the city centre.”
Ms John said she hoped the plans for the copperworks, including a Penderyn whisky distillery and visitor centre, would come to fruition.
She added: “We’re thinking of showing outdoor movies in the yard on a big screen.”
Boss Brewing started in April 2015 and employs eight people, which Sarah said will go up to 11 at the new venue, with tap room bar jobs in addition.
One of several thriving breweries in Swansea, Gower and the wider region, Boss Brewing’s beers are stocked in Asda, Morrisons and Co-op Food. Boss Brewing also owns the Copper bar on Swansea’s Castle Street.
The brewery has also submitted a listed building application to the council for the former cinema, focusing on things like internal work and signs.
The cinema was one of four picture houses that were given the green light in Swansea a year before the First World War.
It opened in November 1913, but remained as a cinema for only 25 years before becoming used for storage and later as commercial premises.
A heritage impact assessment carried out on behalf of Boss Brewing said: “The Landore Cinema became a very popular venue in the Swansea area and offered great entertainment for individuals and families that lived and worked in the industrialised areas of the Lower Swansea Valley, particularly the areas of Hafod and Morfa.”