Birmingham has Britain's Oldest Movie Theater
Electric Cinema Updates with Sofas, Text Waiter Service, Full Bar
Oct 16, 2009
The Electric Cinema was once one of more than 100 movie theaters in the industrial city of Birmingham, but today it's the only independent cinema left.
The Electric Cinema is a landmark at 47-49 Station St., yet its plain white façade doesn’t reveal the cinematic excitement inside.
Britain’s oldest movie theater has been updated with plush seats and sofas in the back of each of its two theaters.
Theatergoers can settle into the sofas and text their orders for snacks and drinks to the wait staff, who’ll deliver the goods sofaside.
The Electric Cinema has the original screening space, which has a 35 mm projector. Upstairs, a second screen was added in 1980, and it has been updated for digital HD with Dolby surround sound.
A Century of Flashing Images at Britain’s Oldest Movie Theater
Other highlights in Electric Cinema history:
- Dec. 30, 1909: The Electric Cinema screens its first film;
- 1922: Renamed “Select Cinema”;
- Nov. 14, 1931: The theater closes and become an amusement arcade;
- 1937: Owners add an upstairs gallery, now Screen 2, and the building becomes the 399-seat Tatler News Theatre;
- 1970: The theater becomes “The Jacey”;
- 1980: The name is changed to “The Jacey”;
- 1984: The names changes to “Tivoli” and the films to soft porn and horror:
- 1993: The name is returned to The Electric and the cinema becomes a two-screen repertory theater;
- 2004: Thomas Lawes Media Ltd. buys the Electric and makes it a center for filmmaking and exhibition;
- December 2009: 100th anniversary. Party plans are underway.
New Adult Beverages for Every Film at the Electric Cinema
Today, the Electric Cinema specializes in independent and "intelligent" mainstream films. And moviegoers can match their beverages to their film.
Watching Harry Potter? Enjoy a Butter Beer.
Wrapped up in “Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”? Then bring on the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
And when it’s time for Bond, James Bond, on the silver screen, text an order for a vodka martini mixed exactly as author Ian Fleming described it.
Once-Banned Absinthe Flows in Britain’s Oldest Movie Theater
There’s one drink, though, that’s uncommon in theaters anywhere in the world. The Electric Cinema serves Parisian La Fee Absinthe from the traditional fountain.
Absinthe is a highly alcoholic distilled drink made from herbs and grand wormwood. Van Gogh and Lautrec drank it during some of Paris's headiest days, and Hemingway loved it in his favorite cocktail, Death in the Afternoon.
The green drink, which turns cloudy with the addition of sugar and water, was a European favorite until it was banned in the early 1900s in Belgium, Switzerland and France.
The new La Fee was created in 1998 and licensed for sale in the European Union. The quirky green drink adds a certain joie de vivre to a night at the Electric Cinema.
What’s On at Britain’s Oldest Movie Theater
Click for the latest on screen and on the menu at the Electric Cinema (Tel 0121 643 7899).
Birmingham has a wide range of travel attractions, including the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and 100 miles of historic canals for cruising, hiking and biking
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