Plaza Cinema

In the small East Sussex town of Heathfield, near Uckfield, the Picture House was built by C. B. Ryder & Co, and opened by Clifford Alb, around 1923. The stage was 11ft deep, while the proscenium was 23ft wide. Miss E. Muddle and Mr Sheffield accompanied the silent films on the piano.

The next owner was Charles H. Pickup. He appointed Mr Murray as manager (who occasionally livened up the shows with live acts under the stage name of Fred Roma!). It was equipped with a British Thomson-Houston(BTH) sound system.

By 1938 cinema had been renamed Plaza Cinema. It was by then owned by The Cinema (Heathfield) Ltd.

The Plaza Cinema was still listed in the 1954 Kinematograph Year Book. It is thought it closed in the mid/late-1950’s.

By the time I visited, in October 2006, the frontage was occupied by retail units, while the auditorium, accessed from the rear, was in industrial/storage use. The cinema entrance was on the right hand side (in my photograph, through what had become Personal Service Travel, by 2020 a Costa Coffee shop).

Get Movie Tickets & Showtimes

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.