With news that the Rio Cinema in Burnham-on-Crouch yesterday ( Friday, 2 April) has been awarded £18,162 in the second round of Government funding to support the arts, culture and heritage, Nub News has taken a look at some of the historic cinemas of Essex.

2020 was the year in which Britain's cinema industry reeled from the double blow of venue closures during lockdowns, and a virtual halt to the production of major films.

However, cinema in Essex has a long history, and we have many survivals to remind us that war, economic crises and changing fashions have all made their mark on an industry which still somehow clings on.

Some of these cinemas are relics of the past, re-purposed through the decades as Bingo halls, restaurants and churches, but retaining striking reminders of their former glory.

Others, though impossibly tiny by modern commercial standards, continue their original function with a loyal following eager to return when normal times return.

According to the Cinema Theatre Association, there are only four listed cinemas in Essex, just one of which is still in use.

Two of these are in Grays. The massive bulk of the State Cinema is still a dominating feature of the town. Opened in 1938 it could seat 2,200 people. It officially closed in 1988, but has been used for numerous events since. An illuminated Compton organ which could rise on a lift from the orchestra pit was a notable feature.

Just this week pub chain Wetherspoon's restated its intention to the preserve the State Cinema building as a pub restaurant, though concerns over its current state of repair remain.

The other cinema in Grays was the Ritz in Quarry Hill, opened (unusually) just as the Battle of Britain was closing in November 1940. The streamlined Art Deco style is distinctive. Closed in 1976 it became a Bingo club, and then in 2016 was converted into a church.

The Regent in Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, was built in 1913 and is elaborately decorated in a traditional theatre style with a marble flanked proscenium arch. This too became a Bingo hall when it was closed in 1975, but is now the Chicago Rock Café.

The fourth listed cinema is the amazing Electric Palace in Harwich, built in 1911. It's one of the oldest surviving purpose-built cinemas, and has its original ornamental frontage, silent screen and projection room. It was very successful in its early days, but struggled with competition from nearby Dovercourt. The 1953 floods forced a closure for repair, and it closed (apparently for good) in 1956.

However, it was rediscovered in 1972 by an academic from Kingston Polytechnic, and attracted a lot of external interest, leading to the establishment of a trust which now runs it as a community cinema through a limited company.

However, it's Burnham-on-Crouch that lays claim to being the only full-time historic cinema in the county. It opened in 1931 as the Princes Cinema, seating 475. In the late 1960's it was renamed as The Rio. To save costs, plans were taken from music hall and theatre drawings dating back to 1912, so the interior more closely resembles the Harwich Electric Palace than the Art Deco style we might expect.

Many other small towns such as Maldon and Halstead had thriving cinemas which linger on in other roles, or are just a fond memory.

There's something unique about the collective excitement of watching a film with other people – let's hope that better times will enable us to rediscover that soon.