The Arts Centre is one of the few more memorable buildings of a town whose homogeneity could work against as well as for it. Although it was over 20 years ago, I still picture the scenes of Middlemarch filmed here.
Like much of Stamford, it has changed little since externally, which is to be welcomed, but I did feel a bit that the interior was still of the 1990s. I am glad that the theatre’s seats are to be replaced – for convenience of getting in and out more than comfort – but I would suggest that the bar and especially the toilets need likewise upgrading. The ladies’ are difficult to access, being down tight stairs and passages.
The other reason that the tight legroom in the auditorium matters is that you have to select a seat when booking, and so may have to ask others to move to get to yours, even if there are many free ones elsewhere. Having to sit by a selfish and sometimes discomfiting man because of this and then not be able to get out quickly afterwards marred my enjoyment of the film and my general visit.
I am proud that Stamford has no commercial cinema; the Georgian group on St Mary’s St offers something for all aspect of the town’s arts needs. Stamford Arts Centre’s programme fits in film with live and visual arts and has workshops on Lego and sock puppets in honour of appropriate movies and its own annual poet laureate.
There is a ballroom and a cellar bar, an extension for exhibitions, a café, and the town’s tourist information centre. The café feels community centre rather than arty but its prices are more manageable than some other nearby deceased eateries I could mention, and sadly isn’t quite big enough for the amount of people wanting to use it.
It stays open all day up to the last film, unlike some other arts centres which stop mid afternoon; and with the late night bar in the cellar means that the Arts Centre offers somewhere to meet at most hours of the day.
The film programming is varyingly behind release date, which I used to my advantage to catch something I’d missed. It leaps from Disney to arty, with occasional retrospectives. Currently, Alan Rickman is being honoured but so is Kung Fu Panda and Eddie the Eagle and Brigitte Bardot.
Films are shown in a room that has been entertaining and challenging Stamford for 2 centuries. The screen isn’t huge but was unobscured by the stage, as at some joint use auditoriums.
They start the adverts before the published time, so that you waste less time watching them and they feel more background than something you’re supposed to sit through for your money. I think this is how adverts should be – if they must be used at all. They have Pearl and Dean here, which provides a brief interview with cast about upcoming movies, as well as their signature pa-pas.
I found staff very pleasant and they were quick to reply to an email inquiry. I was very pleased, after visiting from Middlemarch’s time, to make my acquaintance at last with the films.
Cinema with Elspeth 