Little Cinema

In Looe, a coastal town in south-east Cornwall, the Guildhall (also known as the Town Hall) was erected in 1877. The Cinema, with just 178 seats, had opened, on the ground floor, by at least 1925. It was operated by Leon Lennard. In the late-1920’s it was renamed, rather appropriately, the Little Cinema.

A small foyer building, attached to the Guildhall, acted as the entrance to the Little Cinema. This resembled an ‘Eastern’ pavilion (and, slightly confusingly, had the name Ye Looe Cinema on it in the early-1930’s, at least.)

When the talkies arrived, a British Thomson-Houston(BTH) sound system was installed.

By the outbreak of World War II, Edwin Pearn, who also acquired the Pavilion Cinema around that time (see separate Cinema Treasures entry), had taken over. According to the Kinematograph Year Books, he replaced the existing sound system with ones from Gyrotone, then Harrison Sound, then back to Gyrotone.

Curiously, the declared seating capacity dipped to 150 in the mid-late-1930’s, then went up to 170 in the 1940’s.

Sadly, Mr Pearn died in 1949, and the Little Cinema closed. However, a newspaper article dated 15th July 1949 reported that the Little Cinema was closing because it was “uneconomic to run because of new safety precautions required by Cornwall County Council”. It is not, of course, known whether Mr Pearn intended making whatever alterations would have been required to satisfy the Council.

The building continues to provide a home to a number of business, including an indoor market in the room previously occupied by the Little Cinema.

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