Futurist Cinema

Located in the Basford district of Nottingham at the junction of Valley Road and Nottingham Road. The Futurist Cinema opened on 26th July, 1937 with Jack Buchanan in “This’ll Make You Whistle”. It had a car park which has a capacity for 200 cars. The Futurist Cinema was built for R.L. Kemp, and was taken over by Basford Cinemas Ltd. in 1940.

It was equipped with CinemaScope in 1955. In 1960 the circle was closed and converted into offices. In 1963 it was sold to United Industries, and they made the offices in the circle smaller and reinstated the front of the circle with 200 seats. They closed the Futurist Cinema in August 1966. They leased it out to an independent operator and was closed in March 1976. The auditorium was altered, and it re-opened using the circle seating area only on 18th July 1976. It had a mixed programme of films, screening family films and (X) Certificate films. It closed on 13th August 1977 with Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music”. Since closing the building was stripped out and has had a variety of uses mainly conversion into offices.

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

picapica on February 26, 2014 at 11:34 am

There is confusion here.

The Futurist is, in deed, on Valley Road but has never been called the Metropole.

The Metropole was about two miles away, sited on Mansfield Road.

In fact most of the description here is of the Metropole which has been demolished. The Futurist still stands and is the home to a small collection of companies.

Mark

Ken Roe on February 26, 2014 at 12:21 pm

Thanks Mark, I have corrected the introduction of the Futurist Cinema.

Carlamather on September 21, 2016 at 2:53 pm

Hi I would like to ask for your help please ? I am in search of the manager/ projectionist name who worked at the Forum cinema in 1944/45 . Possibly going by the name Upton ? We are led to believe that he had a son called Mike Upton . Who would now be mid 80’s ?? Or if anybody know his son ? I would be so grateful if you could help me . Or can advise the best way possible to retrieve this information some how .. Thankyou for reading …

dave on June 24, 2022 at 3:24 am

For location purposes, this cinema is on Valley Road at the junction with Nottingham Road, in front of Basford Cemetery. I can’t find a decent map to illustrate its location.

rivest266 on November 7, 2022 at 9:17 am

Grand opening ad posted.