The Arc Cinema
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Arc Cinema by Richard Croft as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Arc Cinema
Image: © Richard Croft Taken: 29 Apr 2026
Built as a reading room, concert hall, opera house, roller skating rink and aquarium in 1875, the venue was unsutainable and after a rebuild by local architects Bottle & Ottley in 1882, became The Royal Aquarium Theatre in 1883. By 1914, films were being regularly screened and became exclusively a cinema in the 1920s, still known as The Royal Aquarium with seating for 1,500. In July 1982 the main building became the Royalty Cinema, later The Hollywood Cinema closing in February 2019 before re-opening in December 2019 as The Arc Cinema.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.609041
Longitude
1.737022