Gaumont Chichester Eastgate Square, Chichester - 1946

Photo Info

Uploaded on: November 4, 2026

Size: 83.7 KB

Views: 32

License:

The Gaumont Chichester is screening “It’s a Wonderful Life” to excellent business - This is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet “The Greatest Gift”, self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.

The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams to help others in his community and whose intended suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.

• The Gaumont Chichester opened on September 20, 1937, as the largest of Chichester’s early purpose-built cinemas, drawing huge crowds and hundreds turning away at its gala opening.

• Designed by architect Harry Weston in an Art Deco red-brick and stone style featuring a distinctive circular frontage.

The stadium-style interior held 1,278 seats (874 in the front, 404 in the rear) and featured a unique underwater-themed decoration with blue, silver, and gold paintings of bubbles, sea plants, and canvas artwork by Henri Hague, alongside a first-floor restaurant.

• Closed on December 15, 1951.

• Reopened under a private lease in 1953.

• Taken over and permanently closed on October 15, 1960 by the Rank Organisation.

• Converted into a municipal swimming pool on December 20, 1961.

• The building was eventually demolished starting in December 2007.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -