Dome Cinema, Worthing

rdf:langString Dome Cinema, Worthing

rdf:langString Dome Cinema, Worthing

rdf:langString Dome Cinema, Worthing

rdf:langString England, UK

rdf:langString The Argus

rdf:langString BBC history project

rdf:langString I was 14 and allowed to start work. I started working as a projectionist in the cinema, as a rewind boy, like an apprentice projectionist. I was working in the Dome Cinema, right on the sea front at Worthing. On the sea front there were anti aircraft guns manned by male soldiers. Also there were ATS women that worked the telescope. It was a long horizontal one. You looked into the middle of it and could see any aircraft that was coming in. If the gunners couldn't see the planes then the ATS used to direct them. Also I used to fire watch. I wasn't on watch every night, about every 3rd night. I was on watch one night and a bomb was dropped but it didn't explode. It went underground and partly under the cinema. Everywhere was quickly evacuated. The bomb disposal people had a job getting down to it because Worthing beach is all shingles and every time they dug down it just filled back in. They had a hell of a job shoring it up, it took them a good 2 weeks to get to the bomb and at any time it may have gone off! I didn't get 2 weeks off work though. The owner had another cinema up in the town and I went to work there. This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at BBC Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Fred Stamp and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

rdf:langString The £1 prize was divided among the first four people to write in: Miss Mary Summers, of Church Walk; Mr W Tedder, of Lyndhurst Road; Miss F C Philpott, of York Road, and Thomas Chandler, of London Street.

rdf:langString The Dome Cinema, Worthing, West Sussex, England, is a grade II* listed building owned by PDJ Cinemas Ltd. The Dome Cinema, which has three screens and a Projectionist's Bar is run by PDJ Cinemas, while Alfresco Services run two function rooms and the cafe at the front of the building. It has closed for refurbishment several times, most recently between December 2005 and July 2007. The name derives from the distinctive dome on top of a three-storey tower over the entrance. The Dome is an Edwardian building and one of the oldest working cinemas in England, and was opened in 1911 (Brighton's Duke of York's Picture House was opened in 1910). It was opened by Swiss impresario Carl Adolf Seebold. It was originally named The Kursaal — a German word translating as "cure hall". The Kursaal was used as a health centre and entertainment complex by visitors to the seaside town. At the time it contained the Coronation Hall, which was used for roller skating, exhibitions, concerts and events, and the Electric Theatre, the first cinema run for paying audiences in West Sussex. Following the outbreak of World War I leading residents of the town objected to the German name and after a competition with a prize of £1, the Cinema was renamed "The Dome".