The Vic
Why go
The Devonport cinema opened on Victoria Road in 1912 and is the oldest surviving purpose-built cinema in the Southern Hemisphere. It seated close to a thousand people in the silent era, came through a fire in 1924, the arrival of talkies, and four decades under Kerridge Odeon. Then in the early 2000s it was going to be apartments.
A charitable trust of local people formed and stopped it. Auckland Council owns the theatre and the trust holds a long-term lease to operate, maintain and restore it. They reopened it in 2010 after an intensive community effort, and they still run it and still fundraise to keep it going. That is the reason to come here rather than drive to a multiplex.
What to expect
New releases alongside live performances and special events.
The lobby is proper art deco and genuinely lovely. It is not big, and it does not need to be.
There are three cinema screens. Two larger ones and a smaller one.
The ice cream is a reason to come on its own. The lobby does pre-made dipped gelato cones, properly done, in chocolate or chocolate and nuts. Round on the street there is a hole-in-the-wall kiosk selling the same gelato scooped to order. It is the best ice cream in Devonport. If you are on Victoria Road and not going to the pictures, go anyway.
Wine, beer and choc tops as well.
