Cinema in Burgess Hill 1912 to present<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Commercial film making in Sussex began in Hove in 1886, under George A. Smith after he had seen a \u2018lumiere\u2019 show in London, and by 1887 he had made 31 films, ensuring that this county was in the vanguard of the film industry.<\/p>\n
Burgess Hill got its first cinema in 1912 after local business man, A. Downer, had obtained permission to erect a \u2018Picture Palace\u2019. It started out as a plain, low-rise structure, built on some waste ground used by the brick and tile makers and called \u2018The Clamp\u2019. This is the same site in Cyprus Road as where \u2018Orion\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
In its first year the vicar of St. John\u2019s used the new cinema for his \u2018lantern slide\u2019 talks on missionary work and he referred to it as the \u2018Cinematograph Palace\u2019. In 1914 it was called the Electric Theatre and a few years later in 1918 owner J. Hampton referred to it as \u2018The Picture Theatre\u2019.\u00a0By 1922 it became \u2018The Scala\u2019 under a new owner Harold Swire, a man who was already working in the cinema industry in Manchester, Buxton and London.<\/p>\n
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 \u2018The New Scala\u2019.\u00a0 He and his partner employed an experienced cinema architect A. Ernest Shennan of Liverpool to build what is now \u2018The Orion\u2019.\u00a0 He chose to use Burgess Hill\u2019s \u2018 Keymer Brick and Tile Works\u2019 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 \u2018Holmsleigh\u2019 in Burgess Hill who had previously been consulted for the job. The builders were F. & T. Chappell of Liverpool.<\/p>\n<\/div>
The New Scala opened in 1929 with a showing of Charlie Chaplin\u2019s latest film, The Circus. <\/em>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, \u2026”I was very proud of my green and gold uniform\u2019<\/em>. 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 d\u00e9cor in green and peach, and 402 new seats clad in crushed velvet. It had a new name, The Orion,\u00a0 as it is still known today. A panoramic screen and a balcony were installed in 1953.<\/p>\nThe 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\u2019s town-centre \u2018improvements\u2019. The scheme was rather unwelcome in the minds of many of the town\u2019s residents and it has not, so far progressed. One can only hope that loyalty, and a respect for the Orion\u2019s long history will secure it a good future in the town.<\/p>\n<\/div>
The images below show: First, the early \u2018Picture Palace\u2019. \u00a0The next building along is the Salvation Army Citadel, second, children waiting for the doors to open. Third, Burgess Hill artist Michael Duck\u2019s recent painting of the Cinema. Michael is a member of our BHHHA committee and we have bought this image for our archives.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
![\"Cinema](\"https:\/\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/bhhha-cinema-cyprus-rd-orion.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>The “Picture Palace”<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>![\"Cinema](\"https:\/\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/bhhha-cinema-cyprus-rd-old-cinema.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>Waiting to go into the Cinema<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>![\"Cinema](\"https:\/\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/bhhha-cinema-orion-painting.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>The Orion Cinema<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>End notes<\/h4><\/div>This history is based on: \u00a0A. Eyles, F.Gray and A. Readman, Cinema in West Sussex<\/em> (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. \u00a0\u00a0John Fernee\u2019s original account was published in Picture House<\/em>, 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, \u00a0supplied John with much information. Her articles on it are in BHLHS Journal<\/em>, vols. 4 and 6 (1987, 1990).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1407","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nCinema in Burgess Hill - Burgess Hill Heritage History<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\/index.php\/cinema-in-burgess-hill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cinema in Burgess Hill - Burgess Hill Heritage History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\/index.php\/cinema-in-burgess-hill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Burgess Hill Heritage History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BHHeritageHistory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-14T10:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\\\/index.php\\\/cinema-in-burgess-hill\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/burgesshillheritagehistory.org.uk\\\/index.php\\\/cinema-in-burgess-hill\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema in Burgess Hill - 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Commercial film making in Sussex began in Hove in 1886, under George A. Smith after he had seen a \u2018lumiere\u2019 show in London, and by 1887 he had made 31 films, ensuring that this county was in the vanguard of the film industry.<\/p>\n
Burgess Hill got its first cinema in 1912 after local business man, A. Downer, had obtained permission to erect a \u2018Picture Palace\u2019. It started out as a plain, low-rise structure, built on some waste ground used by the brick and tile makers and called \u2018The Clamp\u2019. This is the same site in Cyprus Road as where \u2018Orion\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
In its first year the vicar of St. John\u2019s used the new cinema for his \u2018lantern slide\u2019 talks on missionary work and he referred to it as the \u2018Cinematograph Palace\u2019. In 1914 it was called the Electric Theatre and a few years later in 1918 owner J. Hampton referred to it as \u2018The Picture Theatre\u2019.\u00a0By 1922 it became \u2018The Scala\u2019 under a new owner Harold Swire, a man who was already working in the cinema industry in Manchester, Buxton and London.<\/p>\n
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 \u2018The New Scala\u2019.\u00a0 He and his partner employed an experienced cinema architect A. Ernest Shennan of Liverpool to build what is now \u2018The Orion\u2019.\u00a0 He chose to use Burgess Hill\u2019s \u2018 Keymer Brick and Tile Works\u2019 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 \u2018Holmsleigh\u2019 in Burgess Hill who had previously been consulted for the job. The builders were F. & T. Chappell of Liverpool.<\/p>\n<\/div>
The New Scala opened in 1929 with a showing of Charlie Chaplin\u2019s latest film, The Circus. <\/em>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, \u2026”I was very proud of my green and gold uniform\u2019<\/em>. 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 d\u00e9cor in green and peach, and 402 new seats clad in crushed velvet. It had a new name, The Orion,\u00a0 as it is still known today. A panoramic screen and a balcony were installed in 1953.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s town-centre \u2018improvements\u2019. The scheme was rather unwelcome in the minds of many of the town\u2019s residents and it has not, so far progressed. One can only hope that loyalty, and a respect for the Orion\u2019s long history will secure it a good future in the town.<\/p>\n<\/div> The images below show: First, the early \u2018Picture Palace\u2019. \u00a0The next building along is the Salvation Army Citadel, second, children waiting for the doors to open. Third, Burgess Hill artist Michael Duck\u2019s recent painting of the Cinema. Michael is a member of our BHHHA committee and we have bought this image for our archives.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div> This history is based on: \u00a0A. Eyles, F.Gray and A. Readman, Cinema in West Sussex<\/em> (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. \u00a0\u00a0John Fernee\u2019s original account was published in Picture House<\/em>, 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, \u00a0supplied John with much information. Her articles on it are in BHLHS Journal<\/em>, vols. 4 and 6 (1987, 1990).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1407","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/span><\/div>The “Picture Palace”<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/div>Waiting to go into the Cinema<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span><\/div>The Orion Cinema<\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div>
End notes<\/h4><\/div>