Academy Cinema

In the York Town district of Camberley, Surrey, the Academy Theatre was first granted a Cinematograph Licence in mid-1914. A Facebook posting of an advertisement, although not dated, is said to be from Christmas 1916.

According to that advertisement, the proprietor was George Doman, and there were “Changes of Programme every Monday and Thursday, including all that’s best and latest in the photo-play world”. Shows were nightly, from 6.15pm to 10.15pm, with matinees on Saturday at 2.30pm.

This, and the name “theatre”, implies this was being operated as cine-variety. By the 1923 Kinematograph Year Book, the next I have access to, it had become the Academy Cinema. The proprietor was by then Doman and Fairs, and there were still two changes of programme each week.

It is not known whether the Academy Cinema was wired for sound, but it is doubtful. The 1934 Kinematograph Year Book lists no sound system, and the following year the Academy Cinema is shown as “Closed”.

A photograph in the Cinema Theatre Association Archive, said to be from around 1950, shows the building being used by Pickfords Ltd., removers and storer’s. It has since been demolished.

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