The Regal Cinema (formerly the Heaton & Birmingham Gardens Community Hall) was built in 1931 as a community hall for the newly created Birmingham Gardens residential area.
The Cinema was housed in the Birmingham Gardens-Heaton Community Hall since 1950 in the ownership of Newcastle City Council and commanded a large and loyal patronage of approximately 34,000 per year.
For many years it was a one-man commercially operated single screen cinema that showed a unique mix of films. The cinema showed a wide variety of new, old, foreign, and 'art house' film, frequently with extended seasons. The proprietor of the Regal Cinema since 1968/1969 was Mr Bruce Avard, who invariably provided an introductory talk prior to each screening.
Clientele were mostly drawn from the local and wider Hunter communities (including Lake Macquarie, the Coalfields, Port Stephens and Maitland). They included students from the nearby University of Newcastle, and those who sought more than the impersonal feel of the multiplexes, younger families who wanted affordable entertainment, and the elderly who appreciated the personal attention given by the proprietor, Bruce Avard.
It was used by a wide variety of organisations for invariably successful fund-raising events.
The Cinema was Listed in the 'Cultural Heritage of Movie Theatres Register in New South Wales 1896 - 1996' by the Department of Architecture at the University of Sydney in 1997.
It is listed as an item of interest on the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2003 and was classified by The National Trust of Australia in October 2006.
The Regal Cinema closed on 31st October 2006.
