Hello,

Well so much for my twice weekly updates hey.  Apologies for not writing as often as meant to six months ago.  I’ve been surprised, nay overwhelmed, by the sheer volume of work we’ve had to do during the closure. Because we’d sorted out almost all of the big issues; the plans, the funding, the permissions etc we expected to be keeping busy with sorting out the details but not quite as busy as we have been.

Anyway, you don’t want to hear excuses, you want to hear some news, right?  Well here’s some news; we reopen on Friday 10th September.

And that’s not all.  Because Stephen Frears will be at the cinema for a Q&A session with the first screening on our first day back. The 6.15pm show of Tamara Drewe.  It’s a really exciting way to re-open the cinema and we’re delighted that Stephen could be here.  Our thanks also to Momentum Pictures for offering all the proceeds to go towards the Restoration Project.  You can get your tickets here.

So what’s been going on in the building since my last missive?  You should see it, and soon you can.  The auditorium is almost finished, covered in a rich red colour with a fantastic new lighting scheme, new speakers, a new set of doors into the auditorium (which are push-pad operated for wheelchair users) and wonderful restored art-deco panels.  It makes me smile everytime I set foot in there.

The bar is really coming together, if you’ve walked past the cinema recently you may have noticed the glass balustrading on the front of the new terrace.  It’s going to be great place to sit and watch the world go by.  The equipment for the bar and kitchen has arrived this week, including the cappuccino machine – finally great coffee at The Phoenix.  The colour scheme is a lovely combination of cream, yellow and orange – honestly it just looks great.  With a hardwood floor and wonderful art-deco style lights to set off the room.

The external walls should be having their final coat of paint next week and then the remaining scaffold will come down.  Like a butterfly breaking out of its chrysalis.

We’re moving back into our new office over the weekend and it’s going to be great to finally have a properly planned space to work from.

As you can tell I’m pretty excited about it all.  Can’t wait to see you here.

Paul