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Plastered on the façade of the Queenstown cinema facing the road, this neon pink sign is reminiscent of the halcyon days of the beloved communal hub that provided residents with an outlet for entertainment and recreation.

Located next to the former Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market, the former Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Alley was one of Queenstown’s favourite entertainment spots in the 1980s and 1990s. The former Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Alley was opened in 1977 as one of the several amenities built on a 1.4 hectare extension site of the Town Centre.

In its heyday, queues would form at the cinema as movie-goers lined up for tickets. The four-storey entertainment complex comprised of two cinema halls, a bowling alley, private KTV lounges, an arcade, and various fast-food restaurants – most notable of all, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). A KFC restaurant was situated on the second floor of the complex overlooking the bowling alley, so that diners could watch the bowlers as they had their meals.

The 18-lane bowling alley was located at the basement of the complex. Scoring boards at the bowling alley were manually recorded on pieces of paper in the 1970s before they were replaced with monotonous electric boards in the mid-1990s.

The bowling alley and KTV lounge continued to operate even though the cinemas ceased operations in 1999. The Queenstown hall was then converted into a billiard and LAN centre for two years before the entire building was vacated. In 2013, the complex was subsequently demolished.