Celebrate 10 years of your local cinema

Past, Present & Future

The Hailsham Pavilion Cinema was erected as a purpose built ‘Picture Palace’ and officially opened on 28th November 1921. The first ever performance was Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’.It played to packed houses throughout the early part of the last century but eventually closed down in 1965 along with many other small independent cinemas of the era.

Having fallen in to dereliction and disrepair by 1993 the restoration and refurbishment of the Pavilion became the dream of former Mayor, June Bourne. The Hailsham Old Pavilion Society (HOPS) was formed and by 1999 the society had over 800 members and had raised £100,000. Further money was received from the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as local councils and organistations and the £500,000 scheme to restore the Pavilion went ahead.

The newly restored Hailsham Pavilion was officially opened on the 1st February 2000. Now as a registered charity and fully in keeping with its grade II listed status this splendid building was able again to provide the local community with a venue for enjoying the magic of the movies. In fact, English Heritage has categorised the building to be of historic and architectural interest with a classic façade and is possibly one of the most elaborate small provincial cinemas ever built.

Over the ensuing 10 years the Pavilion has become a central element of community life in and around Hailsham. It has been able to show all the latest blockbuster movies, classics from the past and the best in foreign language cinema in an ever changing rolling monthly programme. It has also become renowned as an excellent live music venue and working with SpyBoy Promotions (www.spyboy.co.uk) has been able to host the very best in world class Folk, Acoustic and Blues Music. It has become a venue for local clubs such as the Hailsham Film Club and the Hailsham Organ Club as well as being a wonderful theatre venue for local Amateur Dramatic and Dance Groups, with the annual pantomime by Hailsham Theatre Group becoming a permanent and popular fixture in the calendar of events.

With the help of a dedicated team of over 120 volunteer staff who serve in many different capacities from a board of directors through to event stewards and box office operatives the Pavilion has been able to thrive and truly become ‘the Jewel in Hailsham’s Crown’. In 2008 it was able to attract over 30,000 customers through its doors for the very first time and the business continues to grow and offer the very best in entertainment to the local community. Like all businesses though, the Pavilion faces very real challenges to its survival. In fact if it were not for an annual grant from Hailsham Town Council and the marvelous fundraising efforts of HOPS the Hailsham Pavilion would have slipped again into disuse and possibly dereliction. Despite outward appearances there is a constant struggle keep the business afloat and as a venue the Pavilion has to be able to count on the support of the local community as paying customers and volunteers to survive. With that support continuing and indeed flourishing, who knows, we could be doing this all again

The New Era of Digital Cinema

You may have heard rumours, you may have read about it in the newspapers but the world of cinema is about to change dramatically with the arrival of digital films and equipment, the 21st century equivalent of “talking pictures”, wide screens and “Technicolor”. Film makers and distributors are convinced that the new format will provide cinema audiences with very high quality screenings, plus additional facilities for those customers who suffer from hearing and visually impairments. Subtitles, in any language, can easily be added to enable all cultures to understand the dialogue. Large savings can also be made due to the ease of storage (no more large 35m reels of “celluloid” to be manhandled by the projectionists) and a film quality which will not deteriorate, as can happen at present.

The drawback of the new technology is the high capital investment. Independent cinemas, such as the Pavilion, are going to find it very hard to find the money. At the moment, there is no definitive time scale for the rollout of the new films and technological equipment BUT it will be sooner rather than later. A time frame of up to three years is being mooted.

With the commercial side of this charitable enterprise just about breaking even, the Pavilion Board and HOPS will be doing their best to find as much as possible of the funds required but we are actively seeking the external funding that quite clearly will be needed. At present, quotes for the equipment are in the range of £60,000 to £80,000. Our own funds should be around 25% of the total or possibly a bit more by the time any equipment is bought.

It is the Board’s challenge to ensure that the Pavilion keeps pace with new technology in order to maintain the film quality expected by our customers and to preserve the venue for generations to come.