Cinema in Burgess Hill 1912 to present

Commercial film making in Sussex began in Hove in 1886, under George A. Smith after he had seen a ‘lumiere’ show in London, and by 1887 he had made 31 films, ensuring that this county was in the vanguard of the film industry.

Burgess Hill got its first cinema in 1912 after local business man, A. Downer, had obtained permission to erect a ‘Picture Palace’. It started out as a plain, low-rise structure, built on some waste ground used by the brick and tile makers and called ‘The Clamp’. This is the same site in Cyprus Road as where ‘Orion’ now stands. The Orion is in fact a rare, and locally cherished survival, since most of the early cinemas in the rural towns of Sussex have been demolished.

In its first year the vicar of St. John’s used the new cinema for his ‘lantern slide’ talks on missionary work and he referred to it as the ‘Cinematograph Palace’. In 1914 it was called the Electric Theatre and a few years later in 1918 owner J. Hampton referred to it as ‘The Picture Theatre’. By 1922 it became ‘The Scala’ under a new owner Harold Swire, a man who was already working in the cinema industry in Manchester, Buxton and London.

In 1927, after another owner, Frederick J. Freeman, had arrived, the building was demolished and the present structure we see in Cyprus road was erected and opened as ‘The New Scala’.  He and his partner employed an experienced cinema architect A. Ernest Shennan of Liverpool to build what is now ‘The Orion’.  He chose to use Burgess Hill’s ‘ Keymer Brick and Tile Works’ to supply the bricks (all 225,000 of them!) because he already used their products for cinema building in the Liverpool area. (Wow!). However, Shennan insisted on retaining the services of Major J.J. Jacobs, a local engineer and architect living at ‘Holmsleigh’ in Burgess Hill who had previously been consulted for the job. The builders were F. & T. Chappell of Liverpool.

The New Scala opened in 1929 with a showing of Charlie Chaplin’s latest film, The Circus. The late Topsy Goldsmith of Junction Road, a faithful early member of this Association, recalled that she got a job as an usherette that year at 10 shillings a week and 1d. commission on ice-cream sales and that, …”I was very proud of my green and gold uniform’. During the next decade and the early 1940s the New Scala faced great competition from new cinemas at Hassocks and at Haywards Heath because they were part of national cinema chains, which meant that they could obtain new films more quickly. But the New Scala valiantly maintained its position and, after a short closure in 1946, it reopened with entirely new décor in green and peach, and 402 new seats clad in crushed velvet. It had a new name, The Orion,  as it is still known today. A panoramic screen and a balcony were installed in 1953.

The next owner was Myles Byrne, who also owned the Kemp Town cinema in Brighton, and he continued through to his death in 1986. There was a bumpy ride in the 1950s with the rise of TV, and later, from the video industry, causing him to lease the actual operation out. The cinema was sold by his widow in 1988 and, briefly, Mid Sussex District Council bought it, promising they would never pull it down. Luckily, since their recent decision to demolish the Martlets Hall in Burgess Hill, causes us to question whether that promise would have been kept, it was taken off their hands in 1990 by showman Bill Freedman, who put further modernisation into effect. It soldiered on to the present day, with a loyal clientele in the town and the wider locality. Trouble loomed once more with the projected 10-screen cinema designated as part of Burgess Hill’s town-centre ‘improvements’. The scheme was rather unwelcome in the minds of many of the town’s residents and it has not, so far progressed. One can only hope that loyalty, and a respect for the Orion’s long history will secure it a good future in the town.

The images below show: First, the early ‘Picture Palace’.  The next building along is the Salvation Army Citadel, second, children waiting for the doors to open. Third, Burgess Hill artist Michael Duck’s recent painting of the Cinema. Michael is a member of our BHHHA committee and we have bought this image for our archives.

This history is based on:  A. Eyles, F.Gray and A. Readman, Cinema in West Sussex (Phillimore, 1996. Author Allen Eyles, who was then a Burgess Hill resident, credited John Fernee, then a loyal member of this Association with his wife, Jen (former headmistress of London Road School) for much of the information.   John Fernee’s original account was published in Picture House, nos. 14/15 (Spring 1990), with a follow-up letter in no. 16. Alan Seymour contributed information on the earliest names of the cinema, from articles in Mid Sussex Times. Topsy Goldsmith, who gave talks on the Orion during her working life,  supplied John with much information. Her articles on it are in BHLHS Journal, vols. 4 and 6 (1987, 1990).