My Brighton and Hove | Places | Cinemas | Princes News Theatre

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Princes News Theatre

The site where the cinema was situated

Lost gloves

By Doreen Mitten

One cinema I have not seen mentioned in recent correspondence was a tiny little one in North Street, opposite the Essoldo. I think over the years it showed many different kinds of films, and I only visited it on a couple of occasions, but remember the fact that it was so tiny.

My first visit there was in my teens (way back). Mum had made me set of Fairisle knitted gloves and beret, and my outing to the cinema was the first time of wearing them. Unfortunately, I managed to lose the gloves on that outing and can remember how upset Mum was. I had to make a return visit from Whitehawk into town to try and retrieve them, but never did find them. There was a lot of work in the Fairisle knitting and my Mum did beautiful work with it. She used to help out with the family income by knitting items for shops at one time, all done by hand in those days.

(e-mail sent 1.7.2001)

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments about this page

Around 1952-3 I was a pupil at Preston College in Preston Road. I had to board there and my mother came every Friday to take me out for the evening. We had tea in a restaurant then we always went to the News Theatre to watch the programme. It constantly cycled round, so if you went in part way through a feature you just watched until that point came round again. I remember a series that changed once a week; it was called 'Thunda' and was a pale imitation of Tarzan.

By Peter (09/02/2006)

I have many fond memories of the Princes as I lived nearby in the Lanes. It used to have some unusual shows. One week in around 1966 or so it ran all of Buster Keaton's silent films with a pianist playing the original accompanying scores. The next week it was back to short - lived B - picture titillation.

By Adrian Baron (25/01/2007)

I remember being taken to this cinema about once a week for a few years, probably aged 5-10. These visits were a highlight event and especially for the cliffhanger serials such as Superman and Flash Gordon. The latter especially I found compelling, from the moment its slideshow-style recap of earlier episodes began, up to the final inevitable trapping of the hero in a situation from which escape was uttely impossible .... until the next week. For years afterwards I wanted to know how Flash survived being trapped in the beam of a massive ray-gun that had him writhing on the ground in agony. Actually, I still want to know, 60 years later, so off to rent the DVD. More seriously, the PNT was a great way to introduce youngsters to films, and to fill a rainy afternoon.

By Ian (24/01/2010)