Closing credits as Littlehampton’s Windmill cinema bows to the winds of change

As the curtains closed on the last film screened at the site, there was a round of applause from the sell-out crowd at the Windmill Entertainment Centre’s main amphitheatre.

The irony of the situation was unfair and far from subtle.

The Quartet, the last film shown at the much-loved facility, followed a band of retired musicians struggling to raise enough cash to save their beloved retirement home from closing.

Their battle was successful. That of the Windmill’s, however, wasn’t.

Despite the determined efforts of hundreds of people from across the area, community groups and amateur dramatics clubs, for the best part of a year, the cinema has closed its doors to Littlehampton, drawing a line under almost a quarter of a century’s worth of history, with the loss of 15 part-time staff at the centre.

Kevin Smith is one of those who has now been made redundant, as a result of cinema operator Inspire Leisure’s decision to close the facility due to declining ticket sales and growing economic stresses being placed on the group.

He started working as a projectionist at the cinema on May 29, 1989 – weeks after television presenter Fern Britton visited the town to officially open the site.

As the longest-serving member of staff at the Windmill, Kevin, 53, of Broadwater, took the responsibility of preparing the complex’s ageing projection equipment to screen The Quartet.

Cinema loss a ‘tragedy’

Moments before dimming the lights in the cinema, Kevin recounted a few of his prized memories over the years.

“The one thing I will always treasure are the regulars who visited the Windmill,” he admitted.

“I have grown really attached to them. They, along with all the guys who work here, are like family.

“There’s something here in smaller cinemas that you just don’t get when you go to the multiplexes like Cineworld. You’re able to have a laugh with the staff here.

“You can’t do that anywhere else.”

He added: “It’s such a tragedy that we are losing the cinema.

“I love my job and what I do here. It’s a passion of mine. Now that’s all over.

“But it’s the older patrons who used the cinema that I feel sorry for.

“There is nowhere left in Littlehampton to watch films from now.”

The Windmill had remained the town’s only cinema for more than two decades, following the closures of The Regent, in Terminus Road, Odeon, in High Street, and Palladium, in Church Street – a site that Kevin had previously worked at before moving to the entertainment centre.

Now, only the Windmill’s live performance theatre remains.

Uncertainty remains

There are hopes a voluntary group of members from the community will be able to eventually run the cinema, much like that of Chichester’s New Park Cinema.

But this is still an uncertainty.

More than 1,000 people have expressed an interest in setting up a film club that would utilise the Windmill’s projectors.

However, Dr Tim Kimber – who was the chairman of the working group initially set up to discuss the plan – said that there was still a “great deal of confusion” surrounding the plans.

Tim, who now is in charge of the separate group looking at organising the centre’s theatre production aspects, said: “The cinema is not closing because it hasn’t got digital projectors.

“Yes, it’s true to say that in a few years’ time, this could have been the case.

“But for the foreseeable future, any group set up would be able to run 35mm films on the current projectors.”