Obituary: The Screen Room

I found out last night whilst checking their website that Nottingham’s smallest and in fact the world’s smallest (check the Guinness Book of Records), cinema is no more. The Screen Room, in Hockley and just across the road from our favourite cinematic haunt Broadway, had been closed over Christmas but now will not be reopening.



I'm on their mailing list but they didn't tell me, either that, or they tucked it away at the bottom of their last email and I didn’t see it. Well, at least I suppose it was a fitting low key end for a low key sort of place. The cinema was a mere 15ft by 15ft, had one screen and just 21 seats. Because of its size, the projector was behind the screen, unlike in a conventional cinema.

Once a porn cinema it opened in its current guise in September 2002 and showed mainly independent films and was great for catching things you'd missed at Broadway. You could though book absolutely any film you liked if you rented the whole place out.

According to the manager there, their nine year lease had simply come to an end and they chose not to renew it. ‘Time to move on!’ their website says. They leave the place on their own terms and debt free. So if anyone fancies taking it on, despite its smallness, it appears to be a going concern.

The Screen Room is survived by several local independent cinemas. The four screen Broadway of course, Derby Road’s traditional Savoy, Belper’s Ritz and Derby's new Quad.

Oh and if you’re missing an umbrella, give them a call, apparently they have at least thirty of them in lost property.

The place will be missed.