Fascinating photos show the golden age of Brighton's cinemas

So we decided to look back at the best of Brighton’s picturehouses when they were at their peak.

These stunning photos from The Keep archive in Falmer show just how popular cinemas were in the first half of the 20th century.

But even before then, Brighton and Hove was a magnet for film lovers.

The place has an important place in the history of film.

Hypnotist George Albert Smith created one of Britain’s first film studios in St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove, in 1897, aided by chemist James Williamson.

He would later go on to invent Kinemacolour, the first successful colour film, in his Southwick home in 1903.

The Mayor of Brighton greets pupils at the Brighton Odeon in 1945. Photo: East Sussex Record Office/The Keep

Two years later William Friese-Greene patented an early two-colour filming process developed at his Middle Street workshop.

Films were screened in Hove Town Hall as early as 1895.

And as all film buffs know, the Duke of York’s Picturehouse opened in Preston Road in 1910, the oldest cinema in the country still in use.

But the Twenties was the age of the “super cinema” in Brighton, kickstarted by the opening of the Regent in Queen’s Road in 1921, complete with orchestra and dance hall.

Nine years later came the 2,500-seater Savoy Cinema Theatre in East Street. In the Thirties the Regent, the Savoy and the Astoria in Gloucester Place jostled for cinematic supremacy, all trying to snap up the most anticipated films.

The Savoy Cinema-Theatre in 1954. Photo: East Sussex Record Office/The Keep

But from the advent of television in the Fifties, Brighton’s array of picturehouses went into a slow decline.

Of the cinemas shown in these pictures, only the shell of the Savoy in East Street remains standing.

• The Keep can take orders for reprints of these photographs. Email thekeep@eastsussex.uk or call 01273 482349, giving the date of publication and reference number of the image you want.