LETTERS PAGE

CINEMA BUILDING SAVED!  I ONCE RAN THE SHOW THERE

Source : 25/01/2000 Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Congratulations to the Jesus Fellowship for acquiring the old Savoy cinema, (latterly the Cannon) and saving it from vandalism by uncaring speculators including a national brewery company which planned to destroy the circle.

I learned cinema projection and operated the show single-handed upstairs for two months when the projection room staff joined the armed forces early in 1941.

One wonders about the maladroit attitude of Northampton Borough Council in trying to stop the Fellowship acquiring the building.

In the 1960s, the council allowed the New Theatre to be demolished, offered to it for a mere £10,000. Yet at a cost of millions to ratepayers, the Derngate centre appeared.

Death of a Theatre by the late Northampton Magazine Lou Warwick is an excellent book, and id probably available at the town's central library.