More small cinemas

There was some reminiscing going on earlier this week about old cinemas in the city. I remember there being a handful, when I was a kid, before the huge multiscreens moved in. But there used to be loads, perhaps twenty at any one time. The city is full of the old buildings. One was a theatre that started showing films in the 1890s. One doubled as a ballroom. Most were built in the 1910s or 1930s and there are many gorgeous art deco buildings. Now used as event spaces, conference centres, a care home, and in one case an undertakers. Many have been demolished. The Fifties onwards started crunching the local suburban cinemas but well into the Nineties there were multiple cinemas. Then in 1995 the first 'multiplex' arrived. It has an art deco vibe, an homage that feels a bit more like a face-rubbing. The last dedicated Bollywood cinema hung on into the 2000s. Now there's four. Right in the middle of town is the newest - for a couple of years there was no city centre cinema at all. One…