Scala Cinema

The Scala Cinema was originally built as a Town Hall in 1898 and had its grand opening on July 28, 1900. Moving pictures were shown at the Town Hall by 1910. In 1913 the Town Hall was converted into a picture house and it was given the name La Scala Cinema and had 550 seats.

The Scala Cinema closed in December of 2000 due to structural problems. Seating capacity at the time of closing was for 314. In March of 2001, the Friends of the Scala was formed.

The Scala Cinema was renovated for use as a cinema and arts centre to the designs of the cinema architectural firm Burrell Foley Fischer. It re-opened on 13th February 2009, now with two screens that each seat 150. The opening attractions were Disney’s “Bolt” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. The building also contains an IT centre, a café and bar. In April 2017 it was taken over by the Merlin Cinema chain.

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Ken Roe on February 18, 2008 at 7:47 am

Two photographs of the Scala Cinema in October 2006:
http://flickr.com/photos/livhouse/310532910/
http://flickr.com/photos/livhouse/310532992/

popcorn_pete on September 2, 2017 at 1:19 pm

The Scala closed again on 8 January 2015 but was reopened on 3 July 2015 by Aurora Leisure. It was taken over by its current operator Merlin Cinemas in April 2016.