Broadway Cinema

Description:The West End Brewery owned by George Hemming & Sons stood at the corner of Wrentham Street in 1889. It was on this site in September 1911 that building began on a cinema. Designed by Harold Seymore Scott it was opened at the beginning of 1912 and was called the Electric Picture House. It became the Broadway in 1923 to a redesign by Horace G. Bradley who added sliding doors for ventilation. In 1956 it was rebuilt, this time to the design of H. Werrner Rosenthal, to become a 623 seat Cinephone and the first cinema to specialise in continental films. In 1977 the cinema closed for a while before opening for a short while as the Gala. It later became the Climax Cinema before finally closing it’s doors in the early 1980s. The building was then briefly used for promotional work during the Superprix.

Showing at the cinema at the time of this photograph was "The Storm Breaker" (1925) starring House Peters as John Strong!

Ron Hubball, local resident, points out that when the cinema was converted to the Cinephone they knocked down the front porch area.