The Rivoli. Parramatta's Bygone Entertainment Venue

Advertisement for Skating at the Rivoli. The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate 7 April 1930 p. 4.

The nondescript, bureaucratic facade of the fourteen storey office block located at 130-134 Church Street, near the old Parramatta Fire Station, betrays the site of what was once a lively social hub for residents of the Parramatta district. Prior to the erection of the multi floored building in 1973 there stood on the same site the Rivoli Dance Hall. The “Riv” through its life attracted large crowds as a major entertainment venue. At various times it operated as an open air picture theatre, cinema, skating rink, boxing and wrestling stadium, dance hall, and markets.

The Centennial Baths of Parramatta

The Centennial Baths Building on the left of the
Lennox Bridge, currently the site of the Riverside Theatre.
(State Library of Victoria H91.300/394)

By the early 1880s the residents of Parramatta felt it was time they had facilities for bathing. The river was polluted and the youth of the town had little chance to "practice the noble art of swimming." Council felt it couldn't waste any time to have "these necessary adjuncts to cleanliness and health erected".1 A deputation led by Mayor Joseph Booth waited on the Colonial Secretary on 15 June 1883 to request that a Bill be introduced to release a portion of land originally set aside for use as a market. The land in question is the current site of the Riverside Theatre next to the Lennox Bridge.

While there was urgency on the part of Parramatta Council to have the baths erected the process of passing the Bill was slow. In 1886 Mr Hugh Taylor, M.L.A., moved to bring in a Bill that would allow the Council of the Borough of Parramatta to construct and maintain a public baths and to borrow money to do so.