Scott Cinemas

HISTORY This cinema was opened as The Odeon on 13th July 1936. The architect was T.Cecil Howitt who also designed very similar Odeons in Weston super Mare, Bristol and Clacton on Sea. It had 1,525 seats. Howitt's Odeons were very stylish mid- Art Deco buildings and there are exterior and interior photographs on display in the cinema foyer. The main staircase and upper foyer retain many features. During the late 1960's it was sold to Classic Cinemas, who were later bought by Cannon Cinemas. Classic separated the stalls area for Bingo and divided the balcony into the two existing cinemas, making a new cinema entrance on the side. Scott Cinemas acquired cinemas in this thriving town in December 1983. For further information see: Odeon Cinemas 1 by Allen Eyles, BFI Publishing. CURRENT The cinema has two identical auditoria on the first floor occupying the old circle. A refurbishment was carried out in 2005 to restep the auditoria to allow new seating to installed. 2011 saw the refurbishment of the toilets and some front of house areas, and both screens were converted to Digital Projection. In 2013 we completely refurbished the lower foyer, with some sprucing up of the upper foyer.