The Ritz Cinema was an iconic architectural building on the banks of the Shannon in Athlone Town. Much like many other iconic buildings in Athlone town, this has been reduced to rubble. The buildings design has long been attributed to Micheal Scott, who produced many rough sketches for it but left the final design up to Bill O’Dwyer who was working and studying in Scott’s office at the time.

Source: Ed Butler

Large areas of glazing dominated the facade and side elevations of the building. Budget dedicated that most of this glazing was never installed. From the image above it does appear that at one time the front facade did indeed have this glazing, however some time after this photo was taken it was removed.

Source: Archiseek

Source: Archiseek

As a child I can recall walking into the foyer of the cinema to be greeted by what appeared to be a large timber staircase in a double high space. Sometime in the 80’s the Ritz closed it doors for the last time and as the Celtic tiger roared in Ireland, the building was reduced to rubble and replaced with an apartment complex.

What is fascinating today is that this building emerged from the architectural sketches of Michael Scott