LITTLEHAMPTON CINEMA HISTORY

THE windmill cinema (1989-present day)

The Windmill Cinema on The Green started showing films in 1989. It closed last year after a fire next door, but is now back in business! Read about its comeback.

THE PALLADIUM
(1920-1986)

On Church Street, what started as the Olympic Hall Skating Rink in 1910, became The Empire Theatre in 1913, then sometime in the 1920s it was renamed The Palladium until its closure in 1986.

THE ODEOn/CLASSIC
(1936-1974)

The Odeon opened on 23rd May 1936  but thrirty years on it was sold by the Rank Organisation to the Classic Cinemas chain. Re-named Classic from 10th December 1967, the final film shown there was "The Belstone Fox" on 1st June 1974.

In 1911 The Electric Picture Palace opened on Terminus Road opposite the railway station. Renamed The Regent Cinema, it stayed open until 1960.

Go back in time to discover old programmes and news clippings from Littlehampton's long cinema history.


DID YOU KNOW?

Harry Joseph. who had started entertaining audiences in Littlehampton in the early 1890s, opened his Kursaal, a combined film palace and pierrot theatre, in Pier Road near the Arun Mill in 1912, on a site later used by Butlin's. On 17 February 1913 he took out a cinematograph licence for the Kursaal to show films as an adjunct to the theatre, music and dancing. By 1915 the Assembly Rooms and the Pagoda Pavilion were also screening some films.

Source:  Cinema West Sussex - The First One Hundred Years

Read memories of visiting old Littlehampton cinemas