Dome Cinema, Worthing
Encyclopedia
The Dome Cinema, Worthing
, West Sussex
, England
, is a grade II* listed building. It has two cinema screens, a function room and a bar. It has closed for refurbishment several times, most recently between December 2005 and July 2007. The name derives from the distinctive dome
on top of a three-storey tower over the entrance.
The Dome is an Edwardian building and one of the oldest working cinemas in England
, and was opened in 1911 (Brighton's Duke of York's Picture House
was opened in 1910). It was opened by a Swiss impresario named Carl Adolf Seebold
. It was originally named The Kursaal — a German
word translating as "cure hall". The Kursaal was used as a health centre and entertainment complex by visitors to the seaside town. At the time it contained the Coronation Hall, which was used to for roller skating
, exhibitions, concerts and events, and the Electric Theatre, the first cinema run for paying audiences in West Sussex
.
Following the outbreak of World War I
leading residents of the town objected to the German name and after a competition with a prize of £1.00, the Cinema was renamed "The Dome".
moved to Worthing
in 1904, from Southend where his family had lived for several years. Seebold acquired the site of the future Dome in 1906.
Seebold began construction of the Kursaal in 1910, after he hired Theophilus Arthur Allen as architect for the sum of £4000. Similar businesses enterprises that functioned as both health spars and entertainment complexes existed on the Continent that were also named Kursaal and Seebold, originally Swiss, was presumably aware of these and used them as a road map for his enterprise.
Seebold's Kursaal opened in 1911. At this time the site retained the extensive gardens of the previous site. Seebold's additions were the Coronation Hall, a skating rink and the Electric Theatre, which displayed short, silent cartoons. The following year Seebold added an awning to cover the garden for all weather use.
The films Seebold showed in the Electric Theatre were sufficiently profitable that he converted the Coronation Hall so that it could serve as a second cinema screen in 1913.
broke out on 28 July 1914 and after casualties began to mount the residents became increasingly anti-German. To save his successful business, Seebold held a competition in 1915 for a new name. The grand prize was £1.00. In a retrospective published by The Argus (Brighton)
on 4 September 2003 it is stated:
had drawn to a close in 1918 that the Dome was converted into a proper, full time cinema. Seebold had arranged for a ranked floor to be added to the Coronation Hall as a temporary measure in 1914 but it was not until 1921 that the change was made permanent when the Dome was re-modelled by architect R. Kirksby for a sum of £8000. This area was to remain in continuous use as a cinema until the Dome was closed for refurbishment on 5 January 1999.
During the remodelling carried out by Mr Kirksby a plaster ceiling was added to the main theatre, along with a large, wood-panelled foyer and a polygonal ticket booth that remained in the building as of 2004. It was also at this time that the Electric Theatre was converted into a ballroom.
For some years the Dome had been the centre of a controversy in that Seebold showed films on Sunday, which was considered a violation of the Sabbath. Local clergymen and town councillors had been attempting to stop this practice for some time, but Magistrates upheld Seebold's application to carry on.
, Worthing. Seebold retaliated to his rival by opening the Rivoli cinema in 1924. By 1926 he owned the Picturedrome.
Seebold continued to enjoy a monopoly in the area until more cinemas opened in the 1930s. The Plaza opened in 1933 and the Odeon in 1934. In the days before television, cinema was extremely popular and the town could sustain five theatres.
invasion in World War II
caused it to briefly close. It reopened under a strict curfew and continued business, though not without incident.
A resident of Worthing
recalled the following case of enemy action for a BBC
history project.
the Dome went into a steady decline due to heavy competition. In 1949 Seebold restructured his company and remarried. He continued to run the new business, The Rivoli and Dome Ltd, until his death in 1951.
By 1955 the Dome was badly out of date and required a refit. The new owners hired architects Goldsmith and Pennells to install a new cinemascope
screen. Although the rise of television and sharing the area with four other cinemas must have added financial pressure, the Dome survived to see its sister cinema, The Rivoli, burn down in 1960. One of the Dome's competitors, The Plaza, closed down in 1968.
At some point the Picturedrome had changed its name to the Connaught and served chiefly as a theatre for live performances, a role it continues today, so the Dome and the Odeon
were the only full time cinemas in Worthing
by this point.
The Odeon was a multi-screen cinema and was considerably larger and more modern than either the Dome or the Connaught. It seemed inevitable that the Dome would fade into history.
town centre, starting with the north. The redevelopment scheme itself dated back to the 1940s and 1950s.
Worthing
's original town hall and the Georgian Royal Theatre were amongst the buildings torn down in the first phase of this project, which cleared the way for the construction of the Guildbourne Centre.
Unfortunately for the council's plans, the Guildbourne Centre was poorly received and its design heavily criticised. The redevelopment scheme apparently stalled shortly thereafter, leaving the Dome cinema in the hands of the borough council that had declared the intention to demolish it.
The cinema remained open during this time, however, with the original building split into three parts and leased to three separate business people on a short-term basis.
Garrick House Ltd, a company based in Crewe
which ran two other cinemas and one theatre elsewhere in Sussex
, leased the Dome cinema itself and continued operating it. Unfortunately the terms of the lease permitted by the council made any long-term investment in the cinema unappealing. With no-one protecting the Dome's long term interests, the cinema went into decline.
Unexpectedly, the Dome's larger, more modern rival shut down first. In 1987 the Odeon
chain of cinemas had decided their Worthing
theatre was no longer viable. The multi-screen Odeon was demolished so that the site could be rebuilt as a shopping arcade. The Dome was suddenly the only purpose build cinema in town again, just as it had been when it started.
The Dome also received some welcome publicity in 1987 when Director David Leland
decided to use the cinema as a location in his film Wish You Were Here
, starring Emily Lloyd
and Tom Bell
.
In 1988 a structural survey commissioned by the council estimated that the Dome required £1,900,000 worth of repairs and the borough council's long dormant redevelopment scheme seemed to be underway again. However, the situation had greatly changed since the council's redevelopment plans had been redrawn at the end of the 1970s. When redevelopment had first been suggested after World War II
the Dome was forty years old. By the time of the survey it was seventy-seven years old and, in the eyes of local people, the concept of redeveloping the town centre had been discredited by the unpopular Guildbourne Centre project. Additionally the fact that the Connaught was primarily a theatre meant that pulling down the Dome would have left Worthing
, a seaside resort with approximately 100,000 residents, without a cinema. These factors lead to a grass-roots campaign to save the Dome that ran through the rest of 1988 and much of 1989.
On 27 April 1989 the borough council approved the plans of Burton Property Trust to redevelop the town centre. The Dome was one of many old buildings to be torn down, including some Grade II listed buildings. There was a public outcry at the developer's plans.
In spite of the widespread local opposition to the redevelopment, the council proceeded with their plans. In response, campaigners sent an application to the Department of the Environment
to have the Dome registered as a listed building. This application was successful and the Dome became a grade II listed building on 31 May 1989.
The campaign against redevelopment continued, with stories appearing in the national press and at least one European newspaper, until Burton Property Trust announced it was withdrawing from the scheme in September 1989.
Between 1989 and 1991 there were a series of planning battles between the council and conservationists, which ended when a government inspector overturned a council decision that applications to develop the area around the Dome on a piece by piece basis were premature.
On 10 March 1991 the Dome played host to the AGM
of the Cinema Theatre Association. Then, in May of that year, local council elections were held resulting in the election of Ian Stuart, a former joint chairman of the Save the Dome Campaign. That month a council planning officer stated that there was no longer any intention of demolishing the Dome. Later in 1991 the Dome Preservation Trust was established to look after the long term interests of the building.
The following year trouble struck. Garrick House Ltd, the operator of the cinema, was subjected to a winding up order by the High Court
on the 29 January 1992. Neville Russell, a Brighton
based firm of chartered accountant
s, were appointed liquidator
s.
In February, the council put forward £110,000 towards building work that would keep the Dome watertight for the next five years. The Dome Preservation Trust was expected raise an equal amount so that the work could go ahead. At the same time, the liquidators installed Robins Cinemas as temporary managers of the Dome. Robins Cinemas operated a small chain of nine cinemas at the time and continued to run the cinema while a legal battle between the council and the liquidator over the rights to the leasehold of the Dome ran on until December 1992.
Control of the Dome was returned to the Borough Council on 25 March 1992. The council immediately closed the cinema over safety concerns, to the shock of local residents. Council officers estimated £100,000 would be needed to make safe the electrical wiring in the Dome, though Seeboard
eventually carried out the work for £26,500, completing the work in May 1993.
Even though Robins Cinemas had been appointed to run the cinema by the liquidator, the borough council re-let the Dome to the cinema chain on a short-term lease. On 13 July 1993 the Dome held a charity showing of Jurassic Park
to raise funds for the Dome Preservation Trust.
In 1994 urgent repairs were carried out the Dome tower itself at an eventual cost of £300,000 to the council. Some of the more ornate architectural features of the Dome had been removed in the 1950s and the Dome Preservation Trust ran a campaign to raise funds so that these features could be replaced. The campaign included the creation of a new group called "Friends of the Dome", of which Professor Anthony Field CBE was the president. The campaign eventually raised over £10,000.
Even after this extensive restoration, it was estimated that work costing a further £600,000 was needed and in 1995 Worthing
Borough Council decided it was time to put the freehold of the cinema on the market. The Chapman Group put in a bid with the intention of turning the Dome into a nightclub, which the council approved. In February 1996 there was a public demonstration in front of the town hall and on 4 March 1996 The Times
newspaper carried a page three article under the headline "Last Reel for Britain's longest running cinema" with the byline of Marcus Binney. The magazine Private Eye
also carried an article about the Dome's situation.
The publicity seemed to attract other bidders for the Dome, amongst them Eugene Chaplin
(the son of Charlie Chaplin
) and an unnamed consortium. In spite of the competition Chapman's bid was successful. Then it was discovered that the then Department of National Heritage
had upgraded the Dome's status from grade II listed to grade II*, a status only four other cinemas in Britain
shared. The Electric Cinema
in Portobello Road
, the Scala Cinema in Ilkeston
(now the Scala (club)
), the Torbay Picture House
in Paignton
, and the Elite Cinema in Nottingham
. The addition of the star to the grade II listing meant that any future application for building work had to be considered by the Secretary of State for National Heritage
.
This may have been a factor in Chapman Group's decision to announce that it was pulling out of the redevelopment of the Dome in October 1996.
In November 1997 the borough council decided to put the Dome Cinema up for sale again. The Dome Preservation Trust renamed itself the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust at this time and began work on a bid to buy the Dome from the council. At this time the cost of renovating the Dome was estimated at £1,000,000.
In October 1998 with the Dome still on the market, a developer proposed building a nine screen multiplex cinema in Worthing
on the site of the Teville Gate shopping centre. The trust continued with its own plans to buy the Dome and renovate it. Before the end of the year the bingo hall and the café that operated in the other two parts of the original Dome complex vacated the premises, allowing them to be reunited with the Dome itself.
By January 1999 there were four bids for the Dome Cinema. On 5 March 1999 the borough council accepted the bid from the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust on the condition that their applications for funding from English Heritage
and the National Lottery
were successful, but on 5 April 1999 the council closed the Dome for reasons of health and safety. After eighty-eight years the Dome was the longest continuously running cinema in United Kingdom
and the only full-time cinema in Worthing
.
approved the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust's application in Early October. The story was carried in the local press and allowed the purchase of the freehold from the borough council to go ahead. On the 9 November 1999 the trust paid the council a nominal fee of £10 and took possession of the cinema.
A grant of £20,000 was made to carry out preliminary work on the building, much of which was done by unpaid volunteers. This allowed the Dome Cinema to reopen on 17 December 1999 with a special showing of the 1957 film The Smallest Show on Earth
, appropriately a comedy about the owner of a troubled small cinema. The reopening was covered by the local press.
The Heritage Lottery Fund
was willing to put up £1,750,000 for the complete restoration of the Dome but only on the condition that the trust raised £500,000 itself first to demonstrate sufficient local interest to make the project worthwhile. The trust launched an appeal to raise the money. The appeal continued to run while the Dome Cinema was open for business but in September 2001 the local press reported that the completion date for the £2.5 million pound renovation had been put back by two years from 31 December 2003 to 31 December 2005. By February 2002 it was reported that the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust only needed to raise £250,000 to unlock the £2.5 million available from the Heritage Lottery Fund
. However on 27 November 2002 it was reported that the trust in fact needed £300,000 but had only managed to raise £75,000. The deadline for raising it had been extended from 31 December 2002 to 31 December 2004.
On 20 November 2002 the trust opened a second theatre in the area that had housed the original cinema screen when the Carl Seebold originally opened the Kursaal in 1911. In honour of the original Electric Theatre, the new theatre retains its name.
The Heritage Lottery Fund
eventually released the money to the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust in October 2003.
The cinema continued to remain open while restoration work was carried out for as long as possible, continuing to show films throughout 2004. On 23 January 2005 Griffin, an independent film by a local director, premiered at the Dome in a gala night that was covered by the local press.
The cinema continued normal business until December 2005 when the major work of restoration began and the Dome was closed again. It reopened on 6 July 2007 after extensive building work.
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, is a grade II* listed building. It has two cinema screens, a function room and a bar. It has closed for refurbishment several times, most recently between December 2005 and July 2007. The name derives from the distinctive dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
on top of a three-storey tower over the entrance.
The Dome is an Edwardian building and one of the oldest working cinemas in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and was opened in 1911 (Brighton's Duke of York's Picture House
Duke of York's Picture House
The Duke of York's Picture House is an art house cinema in Brighton, England. It is the oldest continuously operating purpose built cinema in Britain that has retained both its original name and remains largely unaltered....
was opened in 1910). It was opened by a Swiss impresario named Carl Adolf Seebold
Carl Adolf Seebold
Carl Adolf Seebold was a Swiss impressario who commissioned and ran the Dome Cinema in the English coastal town of Worthing in West Sussex....
. It was originally named The Kursaal — a German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
word translating as "cure hall". The Kursaal was used as a health centre and entertainment complex by visitors to the seaside town. At the time it contained the Coronation Hall, which was used to for roller skating
Roller skating
Roller skating is the traveling on smooth surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: quad roller skates and inline skates or blades, though some have experimented with a...
, exhibitions, concerts and events, and the Electric Theatre, the first cinema run for paying audiences in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
.
Following the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
leading residents of the town objected to the German name and after a competition with a prize of £1.00, the Cinema was renamed "The Dome".
Establishment of the Kursaal
Carl Adolf SeeboldCarl Adolf Seebold
Carl Adolf Seebold was a Swiss impressario who commissioned and ran the Dome Cinema in the English coastal town of Worthing in West Sussex....
moved to Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
in 1904, from Southend where his family had lived for several years. Seebold acquired the site of the future Dome in 1906.
Seebold began construction of the Kursaal in 1910, after he hired Theophilus Arthur Allen as architect for the sum of £4000. Similar businesses enterprises that functioned as both health spars and entertainment complexes existed on the Continent that were also named Kursaal and Seebold, originally Swiss, was presumably aware of these and used them as a road map for his enterprise.
Seebold's Kursaal opened in 1911. At this time the site retained the extensive gardens of the previous site. Seebold's additions were the Coronation Hall, a skating rink and the Electric Theatre, which displayed short, silent cartoons. The following year Seebold added an awning to cover the garden for all weather use.
The films Seebold showed in the Electric Theatre were sufficiently profitable that he converted the Coronation Hall so that it could serve as a second cinema screen in 1913.
The change of name
World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out on 28 July 1914 and after casualties began to mount the residents became increasingly anti-German. To save his successful business, Seebold held a competition in 1915 for a new name. The grand prize was £1.00. In a retrospective published by The Argus (Brighton)
The Argus (Brighton)
The Argus is a local newspaper based in Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, with editions serving the city of Brighton and Hove and the other parts of both East and West Sussex.-History:...
on 4 September 2003 it is stated:
The Dome
It was not until long after World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
had drawn to a close in 1918 that the Dome was converted into a proper, full time cinema. Seebold had arranged for a ranked floor to be added to the Coronation Hall as a temporary measure in 1914 but it was not until 1921 that the change was made permanent when the Dome was re-modelled by architect R. Kirksby for a sum of £8000. This area was to remain in continuous use as a cinema until the Dome was closed for refurbishment on 5 January 1999.
During the remodelling carried out by Mr Kirksby a plaster ceiling was added to the main theatre, along with a large, wood-panelled foyer and a polygonal ticket booth that remained in the building as of 2004. It was also at this time that the Electric Theatre was converted into a ballroom.
For some years the Dome had been the centre of a controversy in that Seebold showed films on Sunday, which was considered a violation of the Sabbath. Local clergymen and town councillors had been attempting to stop this practice for some time, but Magistrates upheld Seebold's application to carry on.
Competition
It was during the 1920s that the Dome saw competition in the form of the Picturedrome, which is today known as the Connaught TheatreConnaught Theatre
The Connaught Theatre is a Streamline Moderne-style theatre in the centre of Worthing, in West Sussex, England. Built as the Picturedrome cinema in 1914, the venue was extended in 1935 and became the new home of the Connaught Theatre . The theatre houses touring West End theatre productions,...
, Worthing. Seebold retaliated to his rival by opening the Rivoli cinema in 1924. By 1926 he owned the Picturedrome.
Seebold continued to enjoy a monopoly in the area until more cinemas opened in the 1930s. The Plaza opened in 1933 and the Odeon in 1934. In the days before television, cinema was extremely popular and the town could sustain five theatres.
Second World War
The Dome carried on, albeit in reduced circumstances, with essentially few changes until fear of GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
invasion in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
caused it to briefly close. It reopened under a strict curfew and continued business, though not without incident.
A resident of Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
recalled the following case of enemy action for a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
history project.
Post war years
After the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Dome went into a steady decline due to heavy competition. In 1949 Seebold restructured his company and remarried. He continued to run the new business, The Rivoli and Dome Ltd, until his death in 1951.
By 1955 the Dome was badly out of date and required a refit. The new owners hired architects Goldsmith and Pennells to install a new cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
screen. Although the rise of television and sharing the area with four other cinemas must have added financial pressure, the Dome survived to see its sister cinema, The Rivoli, burn down in 1960. One of the Dome's competitors, The Plaza, closed down in 1968.
At some point the Picturedrome had changed its name to the Connaught and served chiefly as a theatre for live performances, a role it continues today, so the Dome and the Odeon
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.-History:Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch...
were the only full time cinemas in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
by this point.
The Odeon was a multi-screen cinema and was considerably larger and more modern than either the Dome or the Connaught. It seemed inevitable that the Dome would fade into history.
The redevelopment scheme
In 1969 Worthing Borough Council purchased the Dome as part of a much larger redevelopment scheme. Their intention was to rebuild most of the east half of WorthingWorthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
town centre, starting with the north. The redevelopment scheme itself dated back to the 1940s and 1950s.
Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
's original town hall and the Georgian Royal Theatre were amongst the buildings torn down in the first phase of this project, which cleared the way for the construction of the Guildbourne Centre.
Unfortunately for the council's plans, the Guildbourne Centre was poorly received and its design heavily criticised. The redevelopment scheme apparently stalled shortly thereafter, leaving the Dome cinema in the hands of the borough council that had declared the intention to demolish it.
The cinema remained open during this time, however, with the original building split into three parts and leased to three separate business people on a short-term basis.
Garrick House Ltd, a company based in Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
which ran two other cinemas and one theatre elsewhere in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, leased the Dome cinema itself and continued operating it. Unfortunately the terms of the lease permitted by the council made any long-term investment in the cinema unappealing. With no-one protecting the Dome's long term interests, the cinema went into decline.
Unexpectedly, the Dome's larger, more modern rival shut down first. In 1987 the Odeon
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.-History:Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch...
chain of cinemas had decided their Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
theatre was no longer viable. The multi-screen Odeon was demolished so that the site could be rebuilt as a shopping arcade. The Dome was suddenly the only purpose build cinema in town again, just as it had been when it started.
The Dome also received some welcome publicity in 1987 when Director David Leland
David Leland
David Leland is a director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.-Life:...
decided to use the cinema as a location in his film Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here (1987 film)
Wish You Were Here is a 1987 British drama/comedy film starring Emily Lloyd and Tom Bell. The film was written and directed by David Leland. The original music score was composed by Stanley Myers.-Plot:...
, starring Emily Lloyd
Emily Lloyd
-Early life:Emily Lloyd Pack was born in London, the daughter of Sheila , now known as , a theatrical agent who was a longtime secretary at Harold Pinter's stage agency, and Roger Lloyd-Pack, a stage actor, well-known as Trigger in the British hit sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Her grandfather,...
and Tom Bell
Tom Bell (actor)
Tom Bell was an English actor on stage, film and television. He was dark-haired, lean, and in his later years often played characters having a sinister side to their nature.-Biography:...
.
In 1988 a structural survey commissioned by the council estimated that the Dome required £1,900,000 worth of repairs and the borough council's long dormant redevelopment scheme seemed to be underway again. However, the situation had greatly changed since the council's redevelopment plans had been redrawn at the end of the 1970s. When redevelopment had first been suggested after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the Dome was forty years old. By the time of the survey it was seventy-seven years old and, in the eyes of local people, the concept of redeveloping the town centre had been discredited by the unpopular Guildbourne Centre project. Additionally the fact that the Connaught was primarily a theatre meant that pulling down the Dome would have left Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, a seaside resort with approximately 100,000 residents, without a cinema. These factors lead to a grass-roots campaign to save the Dome that ran through the rest of 1988 and much of 1989.
On 27 April 1989 the borough council approved the plans of Burton Property Trust to redevelop the town centre. The Dome was one of many old buildings to be torn down, including some Grade II listed buildings. There was a public outcry at the developer's plans.
In spite of the widespread local opposition to the redevelopment, the council proceeded with their plans. In response, campaigners sent an application to the Department of the Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
to have the Dome registered as a listed building. This application was successful and the Dome became a grade II listed building on 31 May 1989.
The campaign against redevelopment continued, with stories appearing in the national press and at least one European newspaper, until Burton Property Trust announced it was withdrawing from the scheme in September 1989.
The campaign to save the Dome
With the departure of Burton Property Trust from the situation, the question of what would happen to the Dome was again open. Several proposals were put forward but ran into planning difficulties, including some that were intended to help improve the cinema by overhauling the front and interior of the building.Between 1989 and 1991 there were a series of planning battles between the council and conservationists, which ended when a government inspector overturned a council decision that applications to develop the area around the Dome on a piece by piece basis were premature.
On 10 March 1991 the Dome played host to the AGM
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
of the Cinema Theatre Association. Then, in May of that year, local council elections were held resulting in the election of Ian Stuart, a former joint chairman of the Save the Dome Campaign. That month a council planning officer stated that there was no longer any intention of demolishing the Dome. Later in 1991 the Dome Preservation Trust was established to look after the long term interests of the building.
The following year trouble struck. Garrick House Ltd, the operator of the cinema, was subjected to a winding up order by the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
on the 29 January 1992. Neville Russell, a Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
based firm of chartered accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
s, were appointed liquidator
Liquidator (law)
In law, a liquidator is the officer appointed when a company goes into winding-up or liquidation who has responsibility for collecting in all of the assets of the company and settling all claims against the company before putting the company into dissolution....
s.
In February, the council put forward £110,000 towards building work that would keep the Dome watertight for the next five years. The Dome Preservation Trust was expected raise an equal amount so that the work could go ahead. At the same time, the liquidators installed Robins Cinemas as temporary managers of the Dome. Robins Cinemas operated a small chain of nine cinemas at the time and continued to run the cinema while a legal battle between the council and the liquidator over the rights to the leasehold of the Dome ran on until December 1992.
Control of the Dome was returned to the Borough Council on 25 March 1992. The council immediately closed the cinema over safety concerns, to the shock of local residents. Council officers estimated £100,000 would be needed to make safe the electrical wiring in the Dome, though Seeboard
SEEBOARD
SEEBOARD, formerly South Eastern Electricity Board , was a British electricity company. The electrical power industry in the United Kingdom was nationalised by the Electricity Act 1947, when over 600 electric power companies were merged into twelve Area Boards, one of which was the South Eastern...
eventually carried out the work for £26,500, completing the work in May 1993.
Even though Robins Cinemas had been appointed to run the cinema by the liquidator, the borough council re-let the Dome to the cinema chain on a short-term lease. On 13 July 1993 the Dome held a charity showing of Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
to raise funds for the Dome Preservation Trust.
In 1994 urgent repairs were carried out the Dome tower itself at an eventual cost of £300,000 to the council. Some of the more ornate architectural features of the Dome had been removed in the 1950s and the Dome Preservation Trust ran a campaign to raise funds so that these features could be replaced. The campaign included the creation of a new group called "Friends of the Dome", of which Professor Anthony Field CBE was the president. The campaign eventually raised over £10,000.
Even after this extensive restoration, it was estimated that work costing a further £600,000 was needed and in 1995 Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
Borough Council decided it was time to put the freehold of the cinema on the market. The Chapman Group put in a bid with the intention of turning the Dome into a nightclub, which the council approved. In February 1996 there was a public demonstration in front of the town hall and on 4 March 1996 The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper carried a page three article under the headline "Last Reel for Britain's longest running cinema" with the byline of Marcus Binney. The magazine Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
also carried an article about the Dome's situation.
The publicity seemed to attract other bidders for the Dome, amongst them Eugene Chaplin
Eugene Chaplin
Eugene Chaplin is a Swiss recording engineer and documentary filmmaker. He is the president of the International Comedy Film Festival of Vevey, Switzerland...
(the son of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
) and an unnamed consortium. In spite of the competition Chapman's bid was successful. Then it was discovered that the then Department of National Heritage
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
had upgraded the Dome's status from grade II listed to grade II*, a status only four other cinemas in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
shared. The Electric Cinema
Electric Cinema
The Electric Cinema is a cinema and sound recording facility in Birmingham, England. It opened in Station Street in 1909, showing its first silent film on 27 December of that year, and is now the oldest working cinema in the country. It predates its namesake, the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill,...
in Portobello Road
Portobello Road
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London, England. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London's...
, the Scala Cinema in Ilkeston
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550...
(now the Scala (club)
Scala (club)
Scala is a nightclub in London, England, near King's Cross railway station.-History:The Scala was originally built as a cinema to the designs of H Courtney Constantine, but construction was interrupted by the First World War and it spent some time being used to manufacture aircraft parts, and as a...
), the Torbay Picture House
Torbay Picture House
thumb|200px|The Torbay Picture HouseThe Torbay Picture House is a currently disused cinema located in Paignton, Devon, England.It was open in at least 1914, making it what is believed to be the oldest purpose-built cinema in Europe. In its early days it featured a 21-piece orchestra, with each...
in Paignton
Paignton
Paignton is a coastal town in Devon in England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the unitary authority of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignton's population in the United Kingdom Census of 2001 was 48,251. It has...
, and the Elite Cinema in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. The addition of the star to the grade II listing meant that any future application for building work had to be considered by the Secretary of State for National Heritage
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport is a United Kingdom cabinet position with responsibility for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The role was created in 1992 by John Major as Secretary of State for National Heritage...
.
This may have been a factor in Chapman Group's decision to announce that it was pulling out of the redevelopment of the Dome in October 1996.
In November 1997 the borough council decided to put the Dome Cinema up for sale again. The Dome Preservation Trust renamed itself the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust at this time and began work on a bid to buy the Dome from the council. At this time the cost of renovating the Dome was estimated at £1,000,000.
In October 1998 with the Dome still on the market, a developer proposed building a nine screen multiplex cinema in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
on the site of the Teville Gate shopping centre. The trust continued with its own plans to buy the Dome and renovate it. Before the end of the year the bingo hall and the café that operated in the other two parts of the original Dome complex vacated the premises, allowing them to be reunited with the Dome itself.
By January 1999 there were four bids for the Dome Cinema. On 5 March 1999 the borough council accepted the bid from the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust on the condition that their applications for funding from English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and the National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
were successful, but on 5 April 1999 the council closed the Dome for reasons of health and safety. After eighty-eight years the Dome was the longest continuously running cinema in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the only full-time cinema in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
.
The restoration of the Dome
The Heritage Lottery FundHeritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
approved the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust's application in Early October. The story was carried in the local press and allowed the purchase of the freehold from the borough council to go ahead. On the 9 November 1999 the trust paid the council a nominal fee of £10 and took possession of the cinema.
A grant of £20,000 was made to carry out preliminary work on the building, much of which was done by unpaid volunteers. This allowed the Dome Cinema to reopen on 17 December 1999 with a special showing of the 1957 film The Smallest Show on Earth
The Smallest Show on Earth
The Smallest Show on Earth is a 1957 British comedy film, directed by Basil Dearden, and starring Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers and Margaret Rutherford. The supporting cast included Bernard Miles, Leslie Phillips, Francis de Wolff, George Cross, June Cunningham and Sid James...
, appropriately a comedy about the owner of a troubled small cinema. The reopening was covered by the local press.
The Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
was willing to put up £1,750,000 for the complete restoration of the Dome but only on the condition that the trust raised £500,000 itself first to demonstrate sufficient local interest to make the project worthwhile. The trust launched an appeal to raise the money. The appeal continued to run while the Dome Cinema was open for business but in September 2001 the local press reported that the completion date for the £2.5 million pound renovation had been put back by two years from 31 December 2003 to 31 December 2005. By February 2002 it was reported that the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust only needed to raise £250,000 to unlock the £2.5 million available from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
. However on 27 November 2002 it was reported that the trust in fact needed £300,000 but had only managed to raise £75,000. The deadline for raising it had been extended from 31 December 2002 to 31 December 2004.
On 20 November 2002 the trust opened a second theatre in the area that had housed the original cinema screen when the Carl Seebold originally opened the Kursaal in 1911. In honour of the original Electric Theatre, the new theatre retains its name.
The Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
eventually released the money to the Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust in October 2003.
The cinema continued to remain open while restoration work was carried out for as long as possible, continuing to show films throughout 2004. On 23 January 2005 Griffin, an independent film by a local director, premiered at the Dome in a gala night that was covered by the local press.
The cinema continued normal business until December 2005 when the major work of restoration began and the Dome was closed again. It reopened on 6 July 2007 after extensive building work.
External links
- The Dome Cinema official website — gives details of its opening times and attractions
- The Dome Cinema website without Shockwave
- Worthing Dome — The untold story (Website created by enthusiasts with an extensive history of the cinema)]
- Worthing Dome and Regeneration Trust