Film / bedminster
New cinema for Bedminster
East Street in Bedminster is to get a cinema within a revamped St Catherine’s Place shopping centre.
The owners of the Orpheus in Henleaze will run the new three-screen cinema, which will cost £3m and is expected to attract some 150,000 visitors annually.
As well as the Orpheus, Scott Cinemas own sites in seven other locations across the South West including Sidmouth, Bridgewater and Barnstable.
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Bosses promise that the new cinema will have the latest technology including Dolby Atmos sound and 4k laser projection in all screens, as well as a bar and cafe.
Bedminster has been without a cinema since 1980, when the Rex on North Street closed. That cinema was later turned into a bingo hall, which was demolished in 2014 and is currently being transformed into flats.
Firmstone Consortia One’s plans for St Catherine’s Place include 271 homes and a reinvigorated shopping centre within which the new cinema will be located.
Wider plans for St Catherine’s Place form the gateway to a major regeneration scheme called Bedminster Green which Bristol City Council has identified for building about 2,000 new homes
Developer Francis Firmstone said: “This is fantastic news for Bedminster. The new cinema will become a social hub for the local community and is set to be a catalyst for the wider regeneration of East Street.
“We have worked hard to find a business that’s the right fit for the community to create the kind of step-change that’s so badly needed for the shopping centre. Scott Cinemas is a great South West company, much loved by its loyal following in Henleaze.
“Our plans will help reinvigorate the East Street area, which, in its heyday, was the social and economic hub of south Bristol.
“Securing the cinema will ensure restaurants, cafes and shops will follow suit. Rather than doing a basic upgrade of the shopping centre, we are investing significantly to make sure this becomes the vibrant heart of Bedminster.”
Scott Cinemas director Dan Harris said that the company “jumped at the chance” to be involved with the scheme.
Harris added: “It’s fantastic to see these plans to regenerate this part of Bedminster and I have no doubt our cinema will be vital in the area’s renaissance.
“We are keen to get cracking and share our love of films with people of Bedminster, so hope that these plans will be supported by the local community and wider city.”
Proposals for St Catherine’s Place are for 271 new flats – including within a 22-storey tower – with no affordable homes
Plans already revealed for St Catherine’s Place include 271 homes – 244 of which will be one and two-bedroom apartments situated in three residential buildings, from four to 22-storeys high. Firmstone is also working with Bristol City Council to find ways of delivering affordable homes on the site.
A further 27 flats will be based in two buildings above the existing shopping centre.
Catherine’s House, which forms part of the mixed-use St Catherine’s Place redevelopment, is currently being converted into 54 apartments by Firmstone.
Read more: 15 places in Bristol that were once cinemas
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