Sun Picture Gardens is the world's oldest operating outdoor picture theatre, a corrugated-iron structure on Carnarvon Street in the heart of Chinatown. Movies have been shown here continuously since 1916, and despite the addition of modern sound and projection equipment, the experience of watching a film in deckchairs under the stars has not changed fundamentally.
The cinema screens films nightly, including current releases, in an open-air setting. The corrugated-iron walls, the deckchairs, the night sky above, and the bats that fly overhead during the screening give it a character that no multiplex can replicate. This is not a heritage museum piece — it is a working cinema and a genuine pleasure to use.