Elite Cinema

8 Market Place,
Ashbourne, DE6 1ES

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Related Websites

Elite Cinema (Official)

Additional Info

Functions: Movies (First Run), Retail

Styles: Neo-Classical

Phone Numbers: Box Office: 44133.534.3513

Nearby Theaters

Elite cinema, Ashbourne

The Elite Cinema opened by 1929 in the small market town of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, it was run by local proprietor Frank S. Bromwich who also designed the cinema and ran the towns' other cinema, the Empire Cinema (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures).

The Elite Cinema is located in the main square-Market Place of the town and was much more upmarket than the Empire Cinema.

The façade is simple classical red brick with a stone parapet and a series of tall arched windows, and two shop units either side of the entry. It has changed very little since it was built, with only the loss of the ornate metal torch lamps either side of the entry.

Internally there was a small lobby with a tiny box office window and doors into the stalls, and a staircase with metal handrails led up to the balcony. The 550-seat auditorium had a simple barrel ceiling and there was an arched proscenium with ornate mouldings and small stage. There was little other decoration apart from Art Deco style glass wall lights. It was equipped with a British Acoustic(BA) sound system.

The Elite Cinema closed in 1976 and after a few years of lying empty was converted into a mini shopping arcade in the stalls area (no sign of the auditorium remained) and a nightclub in the balcony with a dance-floor inserted across from the bottom of the balcony cutting the auditorium in two horizontally. The upper proscenium arch remained and some ceiling decoration.

The nightclub was still use in 2009, but had closed by 2020. Plans were approved in July 2020 to reopen the former balcony area as a 144-seat cinema & community centre. Work began on the conversion in February 2022 and it reopened on 26th May 2023 as a cinema with the addition for theatre facilities.

Contributed by Woody

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

woody
woody on July 21, 2009 at 9:16 am

photos taken in 1981 during the conversion to shops and nightclub
View link

photo from 2006, looking much the same apart from the loss of the torch lights
View link

press ads from 1948 for both the Elite and Empire
View link

press ad from 1965 for the Elite – note that the Empire in the ad underneath is now a ballroom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3535848338/

woody
woody on August 6, 2009 at 6:18 am

a photo from around 1910-1920 showing the large town house that was demolished to make way for the Elite
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3793473044/

Woody_London
Woody_London on July 13, 2020 at 3:48 pm

Planned reopening as 144 seat cinema in the circle/nightclub space In 2021

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