“I am really pissed off because after 17 or 19 years someone was going to restore it,” Ms Kilroy said. “They were going to try to retain some of it and it really is quite iconic.” Ms Kilroy said she had lived in Red Hill for 30 years and her now adult children had skated at the skate arena as kids. “We are all really looking forward to walking down to the movies and having the old girl back as a beautiful picture theatre,” she said. The graffiti on the abandoned building will be worked into plans to transform the former skating arena into a cinema, in recognition of the building's history.

Ms Kilroy said Reading Cinemas were behaving like “a bully in the town” and called on them to respect local businesses. “They just want to stop them from having a picture theatre, which I think is absolutely absurd.” Reading Cinema marketing manager Ben Deighton was contacted by phone and email to ask why the company took the boutique cinema proposal to court. Reading Cinema’s head office in Melbourne said no-one was available to discuss the legal challenge. Brisbane City Council confirmed their approval of the boutique cinema in Red Hill was being challenged by Readings.

The council approved an application for a boutique cinema at the Red Hill Skate Arena site in November 2017. “Brisbane City Council approved an application for a boutique cinema at the Red Hill Skate Arena site in November 2017,” a council spokeswoman said. “The application has been appealed and the matter is currently before the Planning and Environment Court,” she said. Red Hill Skate Arena, November 2017 Credit:Fairfax Media The application was from Stephen and Peter Sourris, the operators of the New Farm Cinemas and the Elizabeth Picture Theatre.

The businessmen want to restore the Red Hill building to its former glory, with five-cinemas. They have decided on a "retro and edgy" design, created by Brisbane architect James Davidson, which will incorporate the building's graffiti to preserve its history. “The building has got past character and different layers of history, so we don’t want to just cover over all of that history,” Stephen Sourris said. Red Hill Skate Arena was destroyed by fire in 2002. Credit:Fairfax Media Peter Sourris said before the site became the Red Hill skate arena it was an open-air cinema complex run by his great-uncle Christopher Sourris.

A quick history of the old cinemas can be read here. It was known as the Red Hill Picture Pops in the 1920s before becoming the State Theatre in the 1940s, he said. Peter Sourris said he and his brother were surprised that Reading Cinemas, through a company called Newmarket Properties, was taking he, his brother and Brisbane City Council to court. Newmarket Properties is the property arm of Readings Cinemas, an American entertainment chain. “I am surprised. The grounds they are using is that the approval was not properly made by the Council,” Mr Sourris said.