Gem Cinema

Located in Long Sutton, near Holbeach, Lincolnshire, at the corner of Station Road and West Street. It was a wooden building, and presented marionette shows, among them “Lady Audley’s Secret”, “East Lynne”, “Sweeney Todd” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, before being converted into a picture house. It opened as the Picturedrome in 1924 and in 1925 it was taken over by the Tiller brothers and renamed Alexandra Palace.

The Alexandra Palace burnt down in the early to mid-1930’s. It was rebuilt as the Gem Cinema, which opened in 1936. It was equipped with a Gyrotone sound system and two British Thomson-Houston(BTH) projectors.

The Gem Cinema was owned by J. F. Bradley from its re-opening right up to its closure. The 1953 Kinematograph Year Book lists the sound system as Imperial. This edition records a proscenium width of 16ft.

The Gem Cinema closed on Saturday 2nd April 1960 with “Jet Storm”, starring Richard Attenborough and Stanley Baker. Mr Bradley blamed a lack of patronage, claiming he was losing £100 a month.

The building was converted into a car showroom - Graves Garage - by Arthur Graves.

At some stage the building was demolished. By June 2016 a Nisa Late Shopper supermarket was on the site.

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