The Electric Palace cinema in Harwich was built in 1911 for Charles Thurston. He was a traveling showman who was famous in the East of England for his lavish and eleborate Bioscope shows and he wanted to build a permanent theatre to host them. It is one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas in the UK. Inside the auditorium you can still see the original ‘silent screen’ on the back wall. The cinema thrived until the mid 1950s but then fell on hard times, as was the case with many similar little one-screen picture houses all over the country. The Electric Palace was luckier than many others though, because it was saved from demolition in 1972 and is now a Grade II* listed building. When it reopened to the public in 1981, the cinema was featured on Blue Peter. It has hosted regular jazz concerts and live events on its stage, as well as being a much loved, volunteer-run community cinema screening new films and classic cinema every weekend. In 2018 it closed once more so that urgent repairs could be made to the roof. The cinema is now being fully refurbished with support from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic England and aims to reopen in the summer of 2021.