Electric Cinema

In the centre of Ely, Cambridgeshire, a Cinematograph Licence was granted to Martha Bolton on 25th April 1912 for a “cinema hall” seating 350 on wooden forms. It had been built by the Ely Bioscope Company on the site of some old cottages in Goal Street (later Market Street).

Sources indicate this was known as the Electric Cinema, but whether this name applied from the outset is unclear. The Ely Standard reported, on 5th September 1913, that “considerable improvements have been effected in the interior of the cinema hall: floors have been sloped, gangways made more convenient and steps from the plush tip-ups are now illuminated by ruby lights”. So perhaps this was when it received its ‘proper’ name - especially as it re-opened, in grand style, with the epic “Quo Vadis”, on 25th September 1913.

The Electric Cinema closed in 1929. One source suggests that this was following a screening of “The King of Kings”, starring H. B. Warner and Dorothy Cumming, on 29th April.

The Dunlop Rubber Company occupied the building until the 1950’s, when the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company took over. The building was converted into a waiting room and other offices. After transport privatisation, Cambus closed the building in 1987 and sold it to Grovemere Holdings for redevelopment, which eventually took place in 1992.

By September 2018 the site was occupied by Thing-Me-Bobs general store.

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