West Kent Local News
Remember, Remember: How West Kent's Cinemas Compare - and the Ones That Didn't Survive
"Remember, remember the fifth of November" - V for Vendetta's whole plot turns on tonight, and for plenty of people rewatching it has become a genuine 5 November tradition. That's as good an excuse as any to ask a bigger question: on the day itself, how is cinema-going actually doing in 2026 - nationally, and here in West Kent?
The national picture
UK cinema admissions still haven't recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but 2026 has brought genuine signs of a comeback:
Maidstone: the multiplex, and the four cinemas before it
Maidstone's current option is the most straightforward: ODEON Luxe at the Lockmeadow Entertainment Centre, eight screens of mainstream new releases with luxury recliner seating, in the middle of town by the River Medway. It's not the town's first cinema, though - Cinema Treasures counts at least five before it. The Ritz closed in 1954 after fire damage and was replaced by an office and retail development; the Palace - itself built in 1908 as a replacement for the town's Hippodrome Theatre, which had opened in 1900 and burned down in 1908 - shut in 1957 and was bought and demolished by Sainsbury's to build a store on the site (now a Robert Dyas); and the ABC closed in 1974, its last ever screening a Peter Cushing double bill, "Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires", before it too was demolished - for a Boots. Longest-lived of the lot was the Granada on Lower Stone Street - 65 years as a cinema under five different names (Granada, Cannon, MGM, Virgin, then ABC again) before it finally closed in 1999. The ground floor is still a bingo hall today; the old cinema upstairs has sat empty ever since. The street alongside it is still called Granada Street.
Maidstone's cinemas, 1900-2026
1900192019401960198020002020
today
Palace
Ritz
ABC
Granada
ODEON
Striped bars marked "open" are still running. Hover or tap a bar for exact dates.
Tunbridge Wells: a multiplex, a charity, and a third option on the way
Tunbridge Wells has more variety than anywhere else in West Kent. ODEON's nine-screen multiplex at Knights Park Leisure Park covers the mainstream releases, while Trinity Theatre - an arts charity in a former church on Church Road, named Best Arts, Culture and Theatre in Kent for 2026 - weaves film screenings into its wider programme of theatre, comedy and youth productions, often with a more curated selection than the multiplex runs. A third option is on the way, too, though not for a while: the council's plan to remodel Royal Victoria Place includes a "boutique cinema" as part of the Ely Court phase - but that's not due for a Cabinet decision until April 2027, with completion pencilled in for the end of 2029.
The town's own ABC has a stranger history. Originally the Ritz, it opened in 1934 as the first cinema built for the Union Cinemas chain. It closed in 2000 once ODEON arrived nearby, then - per the council's own timeline - sat empty for over a decade through six changes of owner, before finally being demolished in 2014 for a 167-home retirement village. It wasn't the only one: by the 1950s one company, Essoldo, ran the Ritz, the Opera House and the Kosmos together, earning the town the nickname "Essoldo City". The Camden Electric Theatre (1910-1925) was the first; the Picture Playhouse (1912-1922) and Cinema De Luxe (1913-1916) followed close behind. The Kosmos Kinema ran 1914-1960 and is a shoe shop today; the Roxy's Victorian hall had two separate spells as a cinema before a 1983 fire left only its facade; the Opera House (1931-1968) is Grade II* listed and, fittingly, is still called the Opera House - now a Wetherspoon pub. Cranbrook had two of its own, the Tanyard (1922-1938) and the Regal (1938-1984, now a car park) - and the borough's most recent brush with cinema wasn't a building at all: a seasonal drive-in ran at The Hop Farm in Paddock Wood from 2016 to 2018.
Tunbridge Wells borough's cinemas, 1900-2026
1900192019401960198020002020
today
Camden Electric Theatre
Picture Playhouse
Cinema De Luxe
Kosmos Kinema
Roxy (Great Hall)
Cinema, Cranbrook
Opera House
ABC (Ritz)
Regal, Cranbrook
ODEON
Paddock Wood drive-in
Striped bar marked "open" is still running. Trinity Theatre and Southborough's Royal Victoria Hall Theatre aren't shown here - both are theatres that occasionally screened film, not dedicated cinemas. The Paddock Wood bar is a thin sliver because the venue itself was: a seasonal drive-in, not a bricks-and-mortar cinema. Hover or tap a bar for exact dates.
Sevenoaks: the community trust fighting to own its own cinema
The Stag in Sevenoaks runs a genuine full cinema programme - multiple current films daily - from a community arts centre on London Road. It's actually the oldest cinema still running anywhere in West Kent: built as the Majestic Cinema, it first opened its doors on 22 August 1936 with the musical farce "When Knights Were Bold", and has been showing films in one form or another ever since - 90 years and counting. It's also in the middle of a live local story: Sevenoaks Town Council voted to buy the Stag's freehold from the district council for £650,000, and a public fundraiser comfortably beat its £100,000 target, with more than 600 people pledging over £117,000 by the October deadline. It means the venue's long-term future is being secured by the community that uses it, rather than left to whoever owns the building.
The town, and the wider district, has lost cinemas before, too. The Granada closed in 1960 and became a car park; the Carlton, built in 1935 on an earlier silent-film site, closed in the 1950s and spent decades as a mattress shop before its facade was demolished in 2016. Before either, the Electric Theatre opened opposite the station in 1911, was renamed Cinema in 1925, and closed in 1936 - passing its name on to the High Street venue that became the Granada above. Further out, Westerham's Tudor (1914-1963) was gutted by arson the year after it closed; Edenbridge's Negresco (1927-1959) is now flats; and Swanley's Corona, an Art Deco single-screener, ran from 1938 to 1965 on the site now occupied by Swanley Shopping Centre.
Sevenoaks district's cinemas, 1900-2026
1900192019401960198020002020
today
Electric Theatre
Tudor, Westerham
Carlton
Negresco, Edenbridge
Granada
The Stag
Corona, Swanley
Striped bar marked "open" is still running - and has been since 1936. Hover or tap a bar for exact dates.
Tonbridge & Malling: the borough with none
Tonbridge & Malling is the only one of the four without a permanent cinema today - and it wasn't always this way. The Capitol, Tonbridge's own, opened in 1928 with Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" and was the first cinema in Kent with its own organ; it closed in 1964 and burned down as a bingo club in 1997, with flats on the site now. The town had two more: the Ritz (1937-1978) and the Star (1910-1939). Further out, Borough Green's Rex ran from 1912 to 1964 before demolition for housing; Snodland had two, the Queens (closed c.1940 when its rival opened) and the Savoy itself, which lasted until 1963 and is now a pottery shop; and West Malling's Raymar, the borough's last survivor, ran from 1952 to 1987. More recently, one projectionist kept film screenings going at Tonbridge's Angel Centre for around 30 years, until the cost of digital projection ended them in 2017.
Tonbridge & Malling's cinemas, 1900-2026
1900192019401960198020002020
today
Star, Tonbridge
Rex, Borough Green
Queens, Snodland
Capitol
Ritz, Tonbridge
Savoy, Snodland
Raymar, West Malling
Angel Centre (films)
Striped = still open. No bar reaches the "today" line - this borough currently has none.
The gap looks set to continue, too: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council's councillors voted unanimously in October to build a new £20.6 million Angel Centre, the biggest single investment the council has ever made - but it's a leisure and fitness hub, with a gym, sports hall and community space, and no cinema screen anywhere in the plans. Construction starts in January 2027, with the new centre due to open in 2028. The closest thing the borough has to a cinema today is seasonal: Cinestock's outdoor screenings on the lawn at Tonbridge Castle each summer, under the stars rather than a roof.
31 cinemas, 118 years, one chart
West Kent's cinemas, 1900-2026
1900192019401960198020002020
today
Maidstone
Palace
Ritz
ABC
Granada
ODEON
Sevenoaks district
Electric Theatre
Tudor, Westerham
Carlton
Negresco, Edenbridge
Granada
The Stag
Corona, Swanley
Tonbridge & Malling
Star, Tonbridge
Rex, Borough Green
Queens, Snodland
Capitol, Tonbridge
Ritz, Tonbridge
Savoy, Snodland
Raymar, West Malling
Angel Centre, Tonbridge (films)
Tunbridge Wells borough
Camden Electric Theatre
Picture Playhouse
Cinema De Luxe
Kosmos Kinema
Roxy (Great Hall)
Cinema, Cranbrook
Opera House
ABC (Ritz)
Regal, Cranbrook
ODEON
Paddock Wood drive-in
MaidstoneSevenoaks districtTunbridge Wells boroughTonbridge & Malling
Hover or tap a bar for exact dates. Striped bars marked "open" run past today and are still going - solid bars have closed for good. Tonbridge & Malling (red) is the only borough with no bar reaching the "today" line. This is every dedicated cinema Cinema Treasures records across all four boroughs - the only deliberate omissions are Trinity Theatre and Southborough's Royal Victoria Hall Theatre, both primarily live theatres that only occasionally screened film. Tunbridge Wells borough's sheer density - nine closed venues plus a seasonal drive-in - is why it earned the trade nickname "Essoldo City" in the mid-20th century.
A map of every cinema, open and closed
The top map names the smaller-town venues directly - Swanley, Westerham, Edenbridge, Borough Green, Snodland, West Malling, Cranbrook and Paddock Wood - and the four street-level maps below zoom into each dense town centre, where several cinemas often stood within a few hundred metres of each other. A few venues that were only metres apart on the very same street - the Granada and the Stag in Sevenoaks, for instance, or two or three of Tunbridge Wells's "Essoldo City" cluster - still overlap into a single dot even at this zoom.
Open today
ODEON Luxe Maidstone, since 1998 (map)ODEON Tunbridge Wells (map)Trinity Theatre (map)The Stag, Sevenoaks (map)
Closed - how long each one lasted
Palace, Maidstone - 1908-1957 (49 yrs) (map)Ritz (Pavilion), Maidstone - 1911-1954 (43 yrs) (map)ABC, Maidstone - 1921-1974 (53 yrs) (map)Granada, Maidstone - 1934-1999 (65 yrs) (map)Electric Theatre, Sevenoaks - 1911-1936 (25 yrs) (map)Tudor, Westerham - 1914-1963 (49 yrs) (map)Carlton, Sevenoaks - 1916-c.1954 (c.38 yrs) (map)Negresco, Edenbridge - 1927-1959 (32 yrs) (map)Granada, Sevenoaks - 1935-1960 (25 yrs) (map)Corona, Swanley - 1938-1965 (27 yrs) (map)Star, Tonbridge - 1910-1939 (29 yrs) (map)Rex, Borough Green - 1912-1964 (52 yrs) (map)Queens, Snodland - 1912-c.1940 (c.28 yrs) (map)Capitol, Tonbridge - 1928-1964 (36 yrs) (map)Ritz, Tonbridge - 1937-1978 (41 yrs) (map)Savoy, Snodland - 1938-1963 (25 yrs) (map)Raymar, West Malling - 1952-1987 (35 yrs) (map)ABC (Ritz), Tunbridge Wells - 1934-2000 (66 yrs) (map)Camden Electric Theatre, Tunbridge Wells - 1910-1925 (15 yrs) (map)Picture Playhouse, Tunbridge Wells - 1912-1922 (10 yrs) (map)Cinema De Luxe, Tunbridge Wells - 1913-1916 (3 yrs) (map)Kosmos Kinema, Tunbridge Wells - 1914-1960 (46 yrs) (map)Roxy (Great Hall), Tunbridge Wells - 1920-1958, with a gap (c.33 yrs) (map)Cinema, Cranbrook - 1922-1938 (16 yrs) (map)Opera House, Tunbridge Wells - 1931-1968 as a cinema (37 yrs) (map)Regal, Cranbrook - 1938-1984 (46 yrs) (map)Drive-in, Paddock Wood - 2016-2018, seasonal (2 yrs) (map)
Dates from Cinema Treasures and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's own records. This is every dedicated cinema Cinema Treasures records across the four boroughs - Trinity Theatre and Southborough's Royal Victoria Hall Theatre are left off as live theatres rather than cinemas. The Maidstone, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells town-centre pins cluster tightly since those venues were often just a few streets apart.
We're not listing ticket prices here, since they shift constantly between peak, off-peak and membership rates - but worth knowing that the two community-run venues, the Stag and Trinity, are generally cheaper than the multiplex chains. Book direct: ODEON Maidstone, ODEON Tunbridge Wells, Trinity Theatre and The Stag.
Sources: BFI official 2025 statistics, UK Cinema Association, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's cinema site timeline, and Cinema Treasures' full listings for the Capitol, the Ritz and the Star in Tonbridge, the Rex, Borough Green, the Queens and the Savoy in Snodland, the Raymar, West Malling, the ABC, the Camden Electric Theatre, the Picture Playhouse, Cinema De Luxe, the Kosmos Kinema, the Roxy and the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells, the Cinema and the Regal in Cranbrook, the Moonlight Drive-In, Paddock Wood, the Carlton, the Granada and the Electric Theatre in Sevenoaks, the Tudor, Westerham, the Negresco, Edenbridge, the Corona, Swanley, the Ritz, the Palace, the ABC and the Granada in Maidstone, the Stag's own history page, our own coverage of the new Angel Centre, the Stag's freehold purchase and Cinestock at Tonbridge Castle, and the venues' own sites.
