The Victorian era saw a burst of activity in Brighton and Hove by several pioneers of the fledgling film industry who were eager to push forward the boundaries of this new art form. In fact, some of these men are credited with inventing techniques that to this day are an integral part of the language of filmmaking.

George Albert Smith was one of the pioneers of Victorian cinema. He leased St Ann’s Well Gardens in 1892, where he developed the pleasure gardens to include such novelties as a fortune teller and a hermit living in a cave…In 1897 he opened a film laboratory in the garden’s pump house and acquired his first camera, and by the end of the year he had already made thirty-one films.

On your way to New Venture Theatre, Look out for 40b York Road, which was the site of Brighton Unity Theatre: a socialist, anti fascist Workers Theatre Movement which opened in 1936 with J B Priestly’s They Came To A City.

When you reach the bottom of York Road, look across to the corner of Western Rd and Little Western St—this was the site of the Embassy Cinema, at 1 Western Road, which operated from 1912 as the Hove Cinematograph Theatre, then the Tivoli Cinema, and finally the Embassy Cinema from 1948 until its closure in 1981.

The New Venture Theatre company converted the former Christchurch Schoolrooms in Bedford Place into a theatre space in 1956, with additional expansions in 1983 and 1999. The original upstairs theatre is now used for rehearsals where an alleged ghost haunts the dressing room and stage.

“I auditioned for my first piece at the NVT on a gorgeous day in spring 2007. The audition was held upstairs in the old theatre, it smelt of old velvet seating and the pages from a thousand scripts. It seemed to contain the majority of Brighton’s dust—in which you could see actual footprints on the stage floor. The director Mark Wilson was sat there in the gloom of the front row as I entered the stage to audition under Nature’s own followspot: a shaft of dusty sunlight angled down from one of the theatre’s old skylight windows.” 

At 130 Western Road, where Waitrose now stands, there was a cinema which operated from 1909-1979, variously as Electric Bioscope, Queen’s Electric Theatre, Queen’s Picture Theatre, Picturedrome, Scala Cinema, Regal Cinema, Curzon Kinema, and finally as Classic Cinema.
Originally the size of a small shop seating about 50 people, it expanded over the years to include an orchestra pit when silent films had a live soundtrack, to over 650 audience capacity in the 1930s. The last film screened was either The Warriors or The Spaceman and King Arthur.

“I remember sitting in Brighton’s Curzon cinema for more than seven hours, watching Errol Flynn lead the Light Brigade to glory. In those days films were own continuously and you could stay as long as you liked – or dared.”

Your next stop, the Brighton Little Theatre, is accessed by a small flight of steps.

The Brighton Little Theatre opened in June 1940 with a production of Candida by George Bernard Shaw. The year before, a group of loyal people from a number of dramatic societies had come together to take over a studio and art gallery tucked away at the end of Clarence Gardens. The building was originally the Clarence Baptist Chapel. Una Wilson, one of the original members, recalls how they painted and hammered, whilst fitting lighting and old cinema seats. Props were borrowed from friends and relatives, and costumes created from rationed remnants; the more elaborate gowns were borrowed from a theatrical costumier. During the summer months the blackout presented additional problems to the cooler months, as gasping patrons would have to wait until an interval before all the lighting could be switched off and the windows opened to let in fresh air.

‘Actor Donald Sinden came to give his first stage performance there: One day he received a phone call from his cousin to say that he (the cousin) had been called up into the RAF, was in the middle of rehearsals at the Little, and would Donald take over his part? Sinden, a teenager, was working locally as an apprentice joiner.

One of his performances was seen by a director of Brighton Theatre Royal, and from then on he had two jobs. From 8am to 5pm he was a joiner; from 5.30pm till midnight, an actor. From entertaining the troops in Southern England, he went on to seasons at Stratford, the West End, and tremendous international success in British movies. All from a phone call to stand in at Brighton Little Theatre.’

It was the early 1920s and England was trying to return to normal life. Despite tough post-war economic times there were plenty of advances in entertainment, with a boom in drinking, dancing, fashion – and the advent of luxury or ‘super cinemas’. The Regent cinema, unveiled on 27 July 1921, was one of the first that embraced new technology to develop a popular multifunction entertainment centre. 

The cinema, which a few years later boasted a restaurant and orchestra, café and a sprung-floored dance hall, kept ahead of the times by being the first Brighton cinema to install a sound system, as well as a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ, both in 1929. During its time the cinema screened its own local newsreel. The Regent’s last film was Liza Minnelli’s Cabaret in 1973. The cinema became a bingo hall in 1967.

“On Wednesday afternoons, my father’s half day, in the winter, we always went to the pictures. In the Regent they had budgerigars all along one side in a wire enclosure. We also had tea and toast on a tray, which must have been really dangerous as we had to pass the trays of tea along rows of people.”

Outside Boots’ Queens Road entrance, accessible by a flight of steps, is a small commemorative plaque stating that this is the former location of the Regent cinema.

Continuing along the route, please step back from the crowds when you reach Cinescene.

This venue operated from 1911 through to 1983 under various names, including Bijou Electric Empire, Bijou Select Palace, Prince’s Electric Theatre, Prince’s Cinema, Prince’s News Theatre, Jacey Cinema, and Brighton Film Theatre, the latter as part of the chain of regional film theatres supported by the British Film Institute, with art-house programming, (fulfilling much the same function as the Duke of York’s did from the early 1980s onward). However, audiences remained disappointingly low, and the BFI withdrew their funding at the end of 1978.

It was purchased and re-launched as Cinescene in 1979 by Mr Myles Byrne. Having pioneered often ‘risqué’, but equally often award-winning or challenging, European film screenings at the Continentale in Kemp Town from the early 1950s onwards, he maintained the ‘art house’ approach at Cinescene. 

Filmgoers of a certain age will have fond memories of the somewhat deaf and doddery old couple who ran the front-of-house operations for the next few years; alas, the quality of their tea and cakes was rarely equal to that of the films. The venue still lost money, however: indeed, the word around Brighton in 1982 was that it had only been kept going that year by the unexpected box office success of The Draughtsman’s Contract, which played for six straight weeks despite the fact that the reels were supposed to have been delivered to the Duke of York’s rather than the Cinescene, and that Byrne refused to either return them to the distributor or pay the rentals. A year later it finally closed, standing empty for half a decade before enduring the ultimate indignity of conversion into a ‘film-themed’ Burger King.

The last film screened was The Ploughman’s Lunch (1983) by Richard Eyre.

Following the route, a blue plaque at 20 Middle Street marks where William Friese-Greene opened a film laboratory in 1907. He had briefly been in partnership with Esmé Collings and is credited as being ‘the inventor of cinematography’.

The Hippodrome is on the other side of Middle Street.

Originally built as an ice rink in 1897, The Hippodrome operated as a circus in 1901 and then opened in 1902 by Thomas Barrasford as a variety theatre, designed by the eminent theatre architect Frank Matcham. Established stars such as Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Laurence Olivier, Gracie Fields, Sammy Davis Junior, The Beatles, The  Rolling Stones and Brighton’s own Max Miller performed. Many acts appeared in their formative years, including Max Bygraves, Morecambe & Wise, Shirley Bassey and Frankie Vaughan.

“There was a circus at the theatre one week and the dock doors that led straight out into the carpark were left open one morning to let in some air. The elephant got loose from his tethering rope and decided to have a look around Brighton. It walked out of the dock doors past the stage door and a large window in the stage doorkeeper’s cubby hole. George panicked when he found the elephant gone and asked the stage door keeper if he had seen it pass by. The stage door keeper said he had not noticed it. George screamed at him that he must have noticed it because the animal must have blocked out the f******* daylight as it passed his window. The elephant was eventually found taking a stroll around the lanes and accepting buns from passers by.”

On you way to the old site of The Savoy you will pass ‘Quadrophenia Alleyway’. The entrance is between 10 and 11 East Street.

The Savoy screened all the big hits of the time, such as Wizard of Oz and Grease, but it was in 1948 that The Savoy Cinema had her finest moment: Brighton Rock, the film based on Graham Greene’s novel set in Brighton, had its world première in the cinema on 8 January at midnight. In May 1964, the cinema’s windows were smashed by the Mods and the Rockers during the legendary Whitsuntide riots; the two-day fight was later immortalised in The Who’s film Quadrophenia – with the cinema playing a cameo role.

“I worked at the ABC as it was known then in the early 1990s. It was a lovely old building, it had gone to rot though, the main ballroom upstairs was still there, but the ceiling had partially collapsed and it was inhabited by pigeons. The huge number one screen had been closed for years, but the beautiful old silk curtains, enormous amounts of fabric, slightly tattered, were still hanging there. I remember thinking what a terrible waste it was. I also remember the characters who worked there. Mr Ruby was the manager, John the projectionist and especially a lady called Sylvia. She had worked there for donkey’s years. When they were filming the riot scene in Quadrophenia in East Street, she panicked because she didn’t realise it wasn’t a real riot.”

On your way to The Marlborough, as you cross the Old Steine,  you will see Brighton Palace Pier to your right. Brighton Palace Pier and The West Pier were performance venues, hosting an array of live entertainment and variety acts, and both housing vibrant theatres. 

The Marlborough Theatre, in Princes Street opposite the Royal Pavilion, is thought originally to have housed a ballroom and gambling hall. The theatre’s upstairs rooms were used as a hotel in regency days, and there were rumours that the Marlborough doubled as a brothel. It is said that there was once a secret tunnel between the Royal Pavilion and the Marlborough, built so the Prince Regent might discreetly visit ladies of ill repute. Although the official line from the Pavilion is that there is no tunnel to the Marlborough, the basement of the theatre does indeed contain the bricked-up entrance to a tunnel which appears to head in the direction of the Pavilion. 

The Marlborough Little Theatre played host to meetings of the Brighton Campaign For Homosexual Equality in the 1970s and 1980s, with speakers, discussions and social events; while in the 1980s, lesbian theatre company Siren, produced clever and poignant critiques of women’s place in society, often premiering their plays at the Marlborough or The Nightingale, to huge popularity amongst local lesbian audiences. 

Following the route to the old site of the Astoria Cinema, you will pass the Sallis Benney Theatre on your right, at 58 – 67 Grand Parade. 

The Astoria operated from 1933-1977. The first film screened was The Private Life of Henry VIII by Alexander Korda. Its prominent position at the hub of Brighton’s tramway system on the Level ensured that it drew large audiences from a wide area despite being the ABC chain’s second cinema in the town. The Astoria was notable not only for its decor, but also for its record of technical innovation, particularly after TV viewing began to affect cinema attendance in the 1950s.

“Like so many other kids in the pre-TV age I went there every Saturday morning between about 1957 and 1963 for the wonderful ABC Minors children’s film shows. The shows commenced with a sing-along to various pub standards – My Old Man Said Follow The Van, etc. – accompanied by bouncing-ball prompt on screen. This invariably culminated with We Are The ABC Minors sung to the tune of a well-known military march.” 

 “It was a fabulous cinema, on the Steine by St Peter’s Church, that had terrific character. I think the Astoria used to have CinemaScope. I saw Dr Zhivago there. The last film I saw there was The Exorcist. Well I had to come out because I felt violently sick , I actually felt faint, so I never saw all of it. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago I actually saw all of it. My nephew got it on video and it’s still horrific, even now.”

Following the route to The Theatre Royal and New Road, you will pass the old site of The Coronation Cinema at 104 North Road. Further along the route you will pass The Komedia at 44-47 Gardner Street. When you reach New Road, you will pass the site of The Paris Cinema  at 16-17 New Road. To your left, at the entrance to Pavilion Garden, you will pass the statue of Max Miller.

The Theatre Royal was first established in 1807 by Hewitt Cobb for a ruinously extravagant £12,000 to reflect the aspirations of his audience across the road: the Prince Regent, Mrs Fitzhebert and a host of European royalty. One of its most successful managers was Ellen Nye Chart, running the Theatre Royal from 1876 to 1892. She is said to haunt the theatre. Ellen introduced matinee performances in 1883, and always gave a special performance of the Christmas panto for the 1100 inmates and staff of Brighton’s workhouse. Many famous actors have appeared here including Marlene Dietrich, who liked to scrub her dressing room floor as a means of relaxing before a show!

“My memories of the Theatre Royal were ‘The Single Gulp’ bar (a backstage bar) with an old barmaid who couldn’t resist playing the fruit machine during performances, so always had to wait for a round of applause or a good laugh before she pulled the handle. I have to say that her timing was not that good!” 

“I played at the Theatre Royal in 1975 with Wilfrid Hyde-White. The play was A Perfect Gentleman, which of course Wilfrid was. The problem was that he never learned his lines, so whenever he got into trouble, he’d turn to me and say ‘You’re so clever, dear boy, what am I trying to say?’ I then said his line for him, he’d then turn to the audience and say ‘He’s so clever, give him a round of applause’. I never had so many rounds in my life!’

Paris Theatre, 1940s – Royal Pavilion & Museums.

The Paris Cinema began life in 1863 as a theatre. Twice destroyed by fire, it went through many name changes. As the Court Picture Palace, between 1933 and 1942 it showed many of Max Miller’s films. In 1947 it was renamed the Dolphin Theatre, and became the Paris Continental around 1955. It was demolished in 1967 despite a campaign to save it, supported by leading actors of the day including Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton.

The Max Miller Appreciation Society erected the bronze statue, sculpted by Peter Webster. It was unveiled on 1st May 2005 by Roy Hudd, George Melly, June Whitfield and Norman Wisdom.
Max Miller – ‘the cheekie chappie’, was a popular stand-up comic, variety performer and actor during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He is perhaps best remembered for his risqué sense of humour and flamboyant suits.

Thank you for completing the Back Row and Backstage Brighton walk.