When moving pictures changed the way we viewed the world

Next year is the 120th anniversary of the arrival of the moving picture show which we now know as cinema.
KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001
KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001

Few people realise that Horsham was one of the first towns to witness this modern marvel!

On November 25 and 26 1896, a Moving Picture Show was demonstrated at the Kings Head Assembly Rooms, in Horsham, to an amazed audience.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Soon travelling film shows began popping up in Village Halls all around West Sussex.

KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001
KODAK Digital Still Camera SUS-151030-105603001

The first purpose-built cinema in Horsham was The Central Picture Hall opened in North Street in 1910.

This was soon followed by The Carfax Electric Theatre in 1911.

By 1923 the amazing Spanish-style Capitol Theatre had opened to be used as a theatre and a cinema on different days.

This was situated close to where Swan Walk is now.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The decades of the 1930s and 1940s saw tremendous growth in cinema-going.

Nationwide ticket sales grew to more than 30 million every week.

The magnificent Ritz Cinema in North Street opened its doors in 1936, showing off its splendid Art Deco Interior design.

Later that year the Odeon Cinema opened at the bottom of North Street. In 1982, the Ritz (by now the ABC ) was acquired by Horsham District Council to be converted into an Arts Centre, incorporating a theatre, cinema ,art exhibition area, studio, and bar.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Fortunately the magnificent Art Deco interiors were largely retained.

So here we are in the 21st century, witnessing the arrival of large multi-screen cinema complexes, and seeing the demise of the local cinema.

However in West Sussex and many other counties, film shows are popping up in Village Halls everywhere.

As we used to say many years ago, sitting in the stalls of our local cinema@ “I think this is where we came in!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Much information for this article was provided by the book: “Cinema – West Sussex, the first hundred years “ compiled by Allen Ayles, Frank Gray and Alan Readman, and published by Phillimore & Co, Chichester, for West Sussex County Council in 1996 as part of “ Cinema 100”.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage at www.wscountytimes.co.uk

2 Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wscountytimes

3 Follow us on Twitter @wscountytimes

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

The County Times – always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.

Related topics: