The Windsor Theatre in Lockleys South Australia was a relic of Adelaide’s suburban theatres. A reminder of a time before television was in everyone’s homes people would regularly come to see the latest Hollywood Blockbuster. As suburban theatres popularity dwindled the theatre was forced to close its doors for good in 2012 leaving it abandoned for close to a decade.

The building that eventually became the Windsor Theatre was originally built in the 1920’s as a WW1 soldiers memorial hall. After extensive refurbishment the memorial hall was converted to a movie theatre and opened its doors in 1925. Over the years the theatre changed hands and was upgraded as ‘going to the pictures to see a movie’ grew in popularity. By the 1950’s the Windsor theatre was in its prime, seating almost 500 people and becoming the first Cinema in South Australia to sell Popcorn.

From the 50’s onwards many original movie posters were glued to the wall in the hallway leading to the theatre, this feature was named as the “nostalgia walk”. Some of the posters included The Exorcist, Logans Run, Hair and Dirty Harry. In the 70’s the Windsor Theatre was the first theatre to run late shows of the cult classic the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The Windsor Theatre was closed in 2012, attributed to maintenance costs and lack of ticket sales and sat abandoned for many years. Much to the horror of the public, the theatre was purchased by The City of West Torrens Council in 2018 for demolition. Cinema lovers, historians and the community watched on in horror as the historic building was levelled by bulldozers. The vintage posters and 100+ years of history and vintage posters were reduced to rubble to make way for a carpark.