Red Lantern Cinema

Opened as the Cinema De Luxe on the 7th August 1911 it closed within months and underwent alterations by architect J. Wilson in early 1912 to re-open on 19th August 1912 as the Bijou Theatre screening films as well as staging variety shows and concerts on its stage.

It had another change of name in around 1919 when it became the Coliseum Cinema. In 1926 it came under the new ownership of Archibald Iggulden and the name was changed to Red Lantern Cinema. In 1936 it was taken over by Union Cinemas chain (together with the nearby Casino Cinema) but running two cinemas in a small seaside town in the middle of Winter was not profitable, so the Red Lantern Cinema was closed from September 1937. It never re-opened the following May as was expected.

It became a clothing factory for many years, then in more recent times a shop known as Spender’s Arcade. More recently it has become an antique furniture store/arcade known as Briggsy’s. The word ‘Pictures’ is still to be seen in the stonework on the facade above the entrance. Inside a floor has been built across the auditorium and windows let into the side walls, but there is still much of the original plaster decoration on view.

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