flea pit

plural flea pits

1. colloquialA dilapidated building, stereotypically hosting a low-grade cinema.

   The term flea pit was not justified as the cinema turned out to be clean and well maintained.

   2004, Keith Spratley, Provincial Eye: The Short Stories

   3 more examples

   The Upland Cinema ("The Flea Pit") stood on the corner of The Grove, the street where he had been born.

   1964, Dylan Thomas, The Doctor and the Devils

   The Regal is no longer there, but, when I was eight, nine, and ten it was a flea pit down beside the harbor.

   1970, Colm Luibhéid, All the Green Gold: an Irish boyhood

   I remember going to the pictures at the local flea pit and seeing Riders of Death Valley, a serial in which I avidly #followed the fortunes of my hero Jim . . .

   1980, Mervyn Thompson, All My Lives