It is 27 years ago to the day that the popular Swindon pub The Savoy opened its doors for the first time.

Located on Regent Street in the town centre, the Wetherspoons pub is a firm favourite with many locals.

The Savoy has been on site since its implementation on February 16, 1996, becoming a notable drinking hole on the Swindon pub scene.

Yet the building’s history extends much further back than its use as a public house and those who have lived in Wiltshire town for long enough will remember that it was previously a cinema.

The cinema originally opened in 1937 as The Savoy and was one of many cinemas across the town, which included another, the Arcadia, further down Regent Street.

Associated British Cinemas were the cinema’s operators until in the mid-1980s when it was acquired by the Cannon organisation.

Out-of-town multiplexes offered the public more choice than ever before, spelling the start of the end for The Savoy.

Swindon’s opened at Shaw Ridge in the spring of 1991, with seven screens offering more than 1,400 seats between them.

The cinema closed down five years prior to the pub’s inception and the last films to have been shown there are said to have been Three Men and a Little Lady, Green Card, and The Godfather Part III.