Public Hall Cinema

The Public Hall in Uckfield High Street was built in 1877.

It was run by a committee of Magistrates throughout its life as the Public Hall Company.

It had all sorts of entertainment and in 1904, it started to put on film at the same time as the Forrester’s Hall (later The Cinema) in Harcourt Road started showing films.

These became more regular and in time the films were advertised under the banner of the Public Hall Cinema and continued until 1910, when a cinematograph licence wasn’t applied for under the new Cinematograph Act.

However, when planning permission was granted in 1915 for the Picture House, which was to be situated in the opposite corner of the junction of the present Library Way and the High Street, an application was made and a Cinema licence granted, although it was never to show another film. Annual cinematograph licences were applied for until the Picture House became a full time cinema in 1920, and the Cinema in Harcourt Road closed, the latter, like the Public Hall was run by magistrates. It was often used in an argument in granting a licence to the present Picture House that there are already two cinematograph licences in Uckfield and that a third was not needed. A litle bit of foul play perhaps?

The Public Hall continued until 1949 when it went into liquidation and closed. It became a Magistrates Court and is today the Uckfield Library.

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