The theatre was leased by Sir Oswald Stoll and converted for cinema use by 1919 (following on from some experimentation in 1916 by Howard & Wyndham). There were already six cinemas in Newcastle by the time the Theatre was converted to a picture house. The Stoll Picture Theatre opened on 2 June 1919 with an opening presentation of ‘Tarzan of the Apes’. The Stoll Picture Theatre was the first cinema in Newcastle to show ‘talkies’. The conversion, unlike that of many other theatres around the country was minimal.
