Arcadia Centre

Located in the Lincolnshire seaside resort of Skegness. The Arcadia Theatre was opened around 1911 and was operated by Fred Clements. It operated as an indoor hall and presented Pierrot shows, revues and other theatre productions. A feature of the building was its entrance through a tunnel of rose trellis’s from the road to the entrance doors. Fred Clements sold the theatre in 1935 and it continued as a live theatre.

By 1946 it had been taken over by the Nottingham based United Entertainments Ltd. chain of cinemas, but remained a live theatre until the early-1950’s when it was equipped with projectors, to begin use as a cinema.

It was taken over by East Lincolnshire Arts in 1972 and again presented live shows as well as cinema use. They divided off the balcony seating area to create a smaller 560-seat hall and it operated as the Arcadia Centre from 13th December 1972. It suffered a small fire in the late-1970’s and repairs were carried out. It was closed at the end of the summer season in 1984 due to structural problems and was ‘For Sale’ in February 1986. It was demolished in April 1988 and the site became the Arcadia Car Park.

United Entertainments also operated the Winter Gardens Theatre (but that never screened films) and the Kings Theatre, which screened films in the early days of the Bioscope. They also operated the Parade Cinema, Tower Cinema, Central Cinema which have their own pages on Cinema Treasures)

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