The former Rialto cinema in Dublin is 90 years old this year. When it opened in November 1936, it was the largest suburban cinema in the State and capable of seating 1,600 people, with 200 car parking spaces at the back and 100 bicycle racks.
The beautiful art deco facade with a stepped motif was of its time, adding a frisson of Hollywood glamour to the working class suburbs of inner city Dublin.
The Rialto lasted as a cinema until the early 1970s and was then converted into a car showroom, which closed in 2008. It has lain empty since then.
It is now one of the worst examples of suburban dereliction in Dublin amid no shortage of contenders. The telltale signs of dereliction are there – the buddleia sprouts from every crevice, the sold sign dating back to 2017 that has never been removed. Beer bottles pile up on the corner along with the weeds. Rubbish and graffiti festoon the building and its surroundings.
The cinema’s footprint extends to 6,000sq m (64,000sq ft) of space that could be utilised for housing. There could hardly be a more advantageous location.
