Windmill Theatre

The Windmill Theatre in Great Yarmouth is today one of Britain's earliest surviving Cine Variety buildings. Designed by local architect Arthur S. Hewitt, the Gem opened on the 4th of July 1908 under the lessees the Yarmouth Amusement Centre Ltd, showing continuous 'Electric Vaudeville' all day long from 11am to 11pm at prices of 2, 4, and 6 pence per person, with shows lasting around an hour each. Notices outside the building read 'come in when you like, stay as long as you like'. The films were accompanied by a young lady at the piano, interspersed with songs from a lady vocalist, and occasional gramophone records. Three bioscope operators and three pianists were employed to be able to cope with the twelve hour long continuous programming.

The Gem's interior was a simple hall 160 feet long by 40 feet wide with no stage and the cinema screen fixed to the back wall. There was no balcony and seating was on simple wooden chairs for around 700 people. Local by-laws prevented men and women sitting together under the proviso that it was immoral for men and women to sit together in a darkened hall so men sat on one side of the central aisle, and women on the other.

In the following years a stage and balcony were added and it became the Gem Palace showing films, and with live variety shows on its new stage. A sound system was added in 1930.

After closure during the war it reopened in 1946 as the Windmill Theatre and was soon providing the number two variety bills and popular summer shows in Great Yarmouth, a policy which continued well into the 1960s. It then saw use for a range of activities and exhibitions but is now closed. It is listed Grade II.