We spoke to Nottingham’s oldest cinema, The Savoy

Compared to modern multiplex cinemas, what’s it like working in such a historic cinema?

The building has a lot of character and there’s a lot of history to the cinema, there’s generations of customers that come and tell us lovely stories about how they used to visit when they were children and now they’re bringing their child or grandchild. The owner, James Collington, is so passionate about the cinema’s industry, he's made so many brilliant changes since he took over in mid 90s and it’s helped keep Savoy thriving. When he was a teenager, he’d help out around the cinema when the old manager Alan Silvers was running the Savoy, so there’s a nice connection there.

The building has been open since 1935 when cinema was just settling into talkies and technicolour and cinema-going was a novel event. What glimmers of the past can people still see in the building?

Over the 89 years there’s obviously been a lot of refurbishments to keep the cinema up to date for modern audiences, but it still keeps that nostalgic feel. The layout of the entrance foyer has always stayed the same, with the counter in front as you enter and the stairs to the main screen to the left. It means that when people visit the cinema it is still similar to how it was when they came years ago. We have some great photos around the cinema of how it used to look from the 40s-60s, so customers can see how it’s changed but also which details are the same. 

In 1960, the cinema was used for filming scenes for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Do you know how this came to be? Has the building changed much since?

A lot of the film was shot around Lenton, so I imagine they reached out to the cinema to use it as a filming location and they would have been eager to oblige. The scene set in the cinema where they walk down to the foyer has made the staircase iconic, and they still look the same today so we sometimes get people coming in and asking if they can have a quick photo on them.

A lot of people have passed through the Savoy’s doors over the years, what stories do people tell you about the role the cinema’s played in their lives

A lot of lovely memories have been made by customers over the years and it's always fascinating to hear the stories from older customers about how it was when they were children visiting in the 60s and 70s. People reminisce about seeing their first blockbuster here like Jaws and Star Wars. We get a lot of people mentioning our double seats and remembering bringing their dates here as well. We’ve even had people telling us how they’d get into trouble when trying to date multiple girls, and bump into them at the cinema when on another date! The double seats definitely made Savoy the destination for cinema dates.

Other than standard movie-going, what else goes on at the cinema? 

Children’s parties where they have a private screening of a new film are very popular here, and like a lot of cinemas, we do live streamed operas, ballets, shows, and concerts, but we also do some brilliant classic one-night specials every month that feel unique because of Savoy having that vintage quality to it. Our customers love seeing the curtains open to reveal the screen, and there’s a great feeling knowing that no matter how old the film is, it would have been shown on that same screen when it first came out. We’ve also introduced 35mm screenings which really take customers back to how the movies looked when they were first released. It’s a great experience seeing them on film.

You show a lot of music documentaries and films - from last year’s screening of 1979’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to the upcoming release of Kneecap which is about the rise of the Belfast-based hip-hop trio. Who chooses what’s on the bill for this type of film?

It can be a mix between distributors reaching out to us and us reaching out to them. We love showing a wide range of content and try to put on as many different screenings as possible. Seeing these special events on a cinema screen with fellow fans is always a great atmosphere.

You recently had a Spider-Man mural painted on the side of the building, how did that come about?

Helen Vesey from our head office was always eager for us to improve the side of the building. She felt it would really brighten up the area next to the cinema and make it more of a landmark in Nottingham. The main difficulty was deciding what to have painted on the side of the cinema. Lots of ideas were considered and different designs put together but in the end we decided it was best to go with one character that was iconic but also timeless and that’s how we settled on Spider-Man.

Do you find changing customer demographics affects what the cinema does? When students move back into the Lenton Triangle, does that come into consideration?

Yeah, there’s definitely a massive change in the Lenton area when the students disappear over the summer, it feels a lot quieter but it’s been like that for a long time now so we expect it during this period. It balances out to a degree as obviously there’s a lot more families during the school holidays when the students are away. We show more children’s films then and program some films that will connect with students more when they are here.

Is there anything else you’d like to shout about?

We still pride ourselves at being the best value cinema in Nottingham and feel we offer a really friendly and unique cinema experience that balances the age of the cinema with all the modern amenities like comfortable seating, state of the art laser projection and, of course, Tango Ice Blasts! 

Visit the Savoy at 233 Derby Rd, NG7 1QN. General admission for adults starts at £7.50, or book a booth for £12!

savoyonline.co.uk