Paris Theatre, Sydney
Walter Burley Griffin's modest picture palace kept reinventing itself as cinema, revue and radical theatre until apartments replaced its final stage.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A formally opened theatre at Wentworth Avenue and Liverpool Street, originally called the Australia Picture Palace.
Across six decades it changed names and hosted movies, vaudeville, cabaret, festivals and a short-lived experimental company.
Existence timeline
The Australia Picture Palace begins screening films.
Second- and third-run cinema programming takes over.
Renovation and two renamings establish its final identity.
Experimental Australian productions occupy the building.
Concerts, revues and theatre continue under demolition threat.
The Connaught apartment tower replaces the theatre.
Why it ended
The Paris was demolished in 1981 for the Connaught apartment tower.
Last confirmed trace
City archive programmes, photographs and Griffin records preserve its many identities.
What it left behind
Its final experimental season helped gather artists who would shape the Sydney Theatre Company.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.