IT'S hard to believe the former guise of both this carpet shop and chippie in Weymouth.

Weymouth Carpets in Abbotsbury Road was once the Australian YMCA cinema, showing films for the entertainment for the many Antipodean troops once based in the town.

Weymouth was a base for Australian soldiers during the Great War.

Recuperation camps were set up in Westham, Littlemoor and Chickerell for injured ANZAC troops and it would seem as though the cinema provided the right tonic for the soldiers.

Thanks to the members of the Over 60 and Live in Weymouth and Portland group, who also remember the building being used for Weymouth Grocers, WeyGro, before it transferred to a larger premises on the Granby Industrial Estate in Weymouth.

Another group member remembers there being a hairdressers above the grocers.

Now the building is home to fish and chip shop Daniel's.