The charity responsible for bringing back an iconic Prestwick cinema has been granted funding to purchase the building after a successful bid to the Scottish Land Fund.
The Broadway originally opened its glazed Art Deco doors on April 29, 1935, just as cinema was thriving as one of the prime forms of entertainment. After nearly 20 years of being closed, the Friends of Broadway is working to redevelop the building as a multi-purpose entertainment venue after nearly 20 years of being closed.
“Bringing back the Broadway started as a dream held by a committed group of Prestwick residents," said Guy Walker, chairman of Friends of Broadway. "Today that dream came true.
READ MORE: The Broadway cinema in Prestwick takes key step towards re-opening
"The building will be owned by the community, and we are ‘bringing the Broadway back’ for everyone who said they would love to see films here again. Over the years people have asked us what’s happening with the building, and expressed their wish for something for young and older people to do in the town - well this is our Christmas present to you!”.
The Scottish Land Fund has awarded Friends of the Broadway the majority of the purchase price, with building owner Buzzworks Group contributing a significant six-figure discount to enable it to pass into community ownership. The Ayrshire hospitality group has backed the charity throughout its campaign to revive the venue.
“We are proud to support Friends of the Broadway and hope this further significant financial contribution will allow the group to continue its vital work in preserving this historic building, while creating an amenity for the community of Prestwick to enjoy for years to come," Buzzworks chairman Colin Blair said.
In addition to the purchase price, the Scottish Land Fund has also awarded £50,000 for immediate essential maintenance and further funding to hire a project development officer to drive forward the next phases of renovation.
Built in 1935, the Broadway Cinema originally seated more than 1,000 people, and large parts of the building remain unchanged. The last film was shown in 1976, and after that the building was put to many uses, including a leisure centre, amusement arcade, and squash courts.
Friends of the Broadway intend to restore the historic building to its original purpose in partnership with architects Burrell Foley Fischer, who specialise in heritage cinema and theatre design. The original art deco features of the cinema will be honoured, with new additional features to ensure it is "accessible and convenient for modern-day visitors".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here