Categories
50s to 90s Interesting Kuwait Photography

The Original Al Hamra Cinema

Cy from the blog Cyrographics uploaded pictures of Al Hamra Cinema before it got demolished. He used to work for a company that surveyed the site and he found these photos while searching through some old files. This is what he had to say about the photos:

Disclaimer Notice: I am not the owner of these photos, they are just uploaded for the sole purpose of sharing a rare glimpse of Kuwait history for the younger generations of citizens and expats alike. All credits are due to LAS Architectural and Consultancy Office

I was browsing through my files from my previous office when I chanced upon these photos of the Al Hamra Cinema as it was before. Our office (LAS) used to do a lot of Master Planning studies and proposals for the development of Kuwait City and this area, Al Maqwa Al Shargi, where the cinema used to stand, was part of one of our studies. I don’t know much about the history of this cinema, or even Kuwait in general, but I know this cinema was and will always be a part of each and every Kuwaiti families lives.

We took these photos during our survey of the area in 2003.
The other photos in the set were taken in the latter part of 2004, I guess for sentimental reasons, when the building was demolished to give way to the construction of the Al Hamra Tower.

These files had been stored in our hard disks since then, almost forgotten and in danger of being corrupted, deleted and worst, being lost forever.

You can check his blog post [Here]
You can check out all the pictures [Here]

Also, here is my post on Al Hamra Tower that was built in place of Al Hamra Cinema [Link]

14 replies on “The Original Al Hamra Cinema”

wow.. brings back memories.. wasn’t Firdous cinema right there too? i miss those single screen theatres… why dont we have even one left!?!

Wow. Tis truly a pity. With a little renovation the place could have been used as a center for local cinematography. Not to mention the added desirability of the area for the 20-30 somethings.

Thank you for the feature,Mark..we have photos of other areas in Kuwait City, esp. Murgab, before the construction boom. I will search and upload them when I can. Again thanks and more power!

Damn… i had even forgotten how it looked…

thanks Mark!! this is a great post. i used to live nearby in late 90’s.

I lived in Sharq (opposite Al Firdous Cinema) and watched 2 Shahrukh Khan movies Darr and Baazigar. Still remember the fight over the ticket counter for Khalnayak ticket.
It happened in 1993-94.

Dear Mark,

Kindly repost this thread if you can. as we are nearing hala feb celebration. this post takes me back to those childhood innocent days

Hi Mark,
I am finding your blogs on the Kuwait’s Urban Modernity quite fascinating since I am studying the demolition of the modern built heritage of Kuwait.
In anycase, just wanted to alert you that the links in this page, don’t work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *