East Coast Cinema

The Bridge Hill Pavilion was buit in 1925 by a local estate agent, F.C. Symonds, and initially was used as a vaudeville theatre. It was sometimes advertised as ‘The Pavilion’. In around 1928 it came under the control of the Bostock Cinema ciruit and was re-named Playhouse. Operating with 631 seats, it had a 23 feet wide procenium, a 24 feet deep stage and 5 dressing rooms.

It continued in cinema use until until it became Lowestoft’s repertory theatre, opening on 27th May 1946 with the play "The Flare Path" followed by "The Sacred Flame" and after only a few days operation, it was gutted by fire on 1st June 1946.

It was re-built and re-opened in 1948 as the Arcadia Theatre, now with seating for 900 in stalls and circle levels, having live shows in the Summer and films in Winter. By 1954, the Arcadia Theatre was running cartoons and short subject films in the afternoons and live theatre at night.

In May 1960, producer Noel Gay took control and re-named it Theatre Royal. From 1962 it became a bingo club, known as the Coronet Bingo Club and later the Royal Casino, still on bingo until closing in August 1989.

It re-opened on 30th November 1989 as the Hollywood Cinema with "Ghostbusters 2" and a seating capacity of 400. A second screen was added seating 155 and recently a third screen opened. Seating in the screens are now 125, 60 and 34. In Autumn 2007 it underwent a 250,000 Pound renovation, which included the installation of Dolby digital sound. Now with 4 screens, it was re-named East Coast Cinema on 9th December 2011.

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