SOFA so good for UK’s oldest working cinema
Birmingham’s 110-year-old Electric Cinema is ready to welcome film fans for a tour of its incredible history. GRAHAM YOUNG reports
GET the cakes out! The Electric Cinema on Station Street is ready to celebrate the tenth anniversary of... its centenary. The two-screen picture house with original Art Deco features and handmade cakes is about to turn 110 years old – and proudly remains the oldest working cinema in the UK.
The Electric first opened on December 27, 1909 - 21 years before city entrepreneur Oscar Deutsch opened what would become the first Odeon cinema at 271 Birchfield
Road, Perry Barr, on August 4, 1930.
With its mixture sofas and traditional seats, hand made treats and carefully selected alcoholic beverages reflecting film themes, The Electric has survived two World Wars as well as numerous changes in taste, fashion and politics.
But it’s still going strong as an independent despite 21st century competition from giant multiplexes like Cineworld sites in Broad Street and Resorts World NEC, Vue Star
City and Odeon Luxe Broadway with the company which Oscar Deutsch founded in Brum now the biggest cinema exhibitor in Europe.
Screen 1 has just 108 seats (24 sofa, 82 standard) and Screen 2 has 78 seats (12 sofa, 66 standard) but annual admissions had increased ten fold to 50,000 by the time of the 2009 centenary celebrations.
When the building was acquired by Tom Lawes in 2003/4 it was a crumbling shell with a leaking roof and a basement piled high with rubbish before he turned it round with a £750,000 investment.
Today, Tom is an all-round filmmaker of some repute in his own right and is increasingly spending more time between his Cotswolds home and LA.
A former pupil of Handsworth
Grammar School. he said: “I asked myself, ‘Do people not want to watch specialist movies in Birmingham?’, or is it the fact that the venues are just not run very well.’’
Rebuilding the cinema took Tom right down to the wire.
“Family and friends helped me to renovate the building, though after remortgaging my house and taking out another £15,000 loan, I’d spent £14,850 of that by the time we were opening,” he says.
“That meant I had just £150 to spend on alcohol. We gave everyone a free drink and, luckily, then sold £300 worth which enabled us to buy some more.”
The cinema today regularly holds themed nights for classic movies, Q&As, comedy nights and it even has a wedding licence, too.
From 10am on Saturday, December 28, Tom will be showing loyal patrons round the entire complex which today even includes a recording studio with poster printing facilities.
Visitors will be able to explore the projection booth, the basement (featuring all kinds of cinematic paraphernalia), the converted flat above the cinema and the proscenium arch behind Screen 1.
Film director, music composer, and entrepreneur Tom will be happy to answer questions about the building’s ‘‘long and tumultuous history’’.
The tour will last approximately one and a half hours. Photography is permitted but video recording will not be. The next tour will be on Sunday, January 12 at 10am.
Because ‘adult themes’ will be discussed during reflections about its history, the tour is not appropriate for under 12s.
Current film ticket prices are
£11.20 (standard seats), £8.20 (conc); rear sofa £14.90, front sofa £12.50.
See the box office for details of a £5 for five hours parking deal at NCP New Street off St Jude’s Passage.
1908 – The Electric was built out of a converted taxi rank by proprietors Electric Theatres Ltd.
1922 – Renamed as Select Cinema.
1931 – The cinema closed and became an amusement arcade.
1936 – It was rebuilt by the architect Cecil Fillmore as an Art Deco news theatre.
1937 – The building added a gallery upstairs (now screen 2) and became the 399-seat Tatler News Theatre.
1970 – The cinema becomes The Jacey.
1980 – A second screen is added upstairs and the cinema becomes The Classic.
1984 – The Tivoli opens on a strict diet of soft porn and horror.
1993 – The cinema is renamed back to The Electric and becomes a two-screen repertory theatre.
2004 – The Electric Cinema is bought by Thomas Lawes Media Ltd and a sympathetic rebuilding programme gets underway.
2009 – The Electric celebrates its 100th birthday.