VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Tour of Stratford's new Everyman cinema

With Stratford’s gleaming Everyman cinema rapidly approaching completion, the Herald were treated to an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the centre piece of the town’s new Bell Court development.

Those walking through Bell Court could hardly have missed the golden fronted Everyman, which this month saw its name emblazoned for the first time on the front of the building.

The cinema has been designed as the anchor of Bell Court, drawing people in to the development, who will in turn make use of the range of restaurants and retailers who will occupy other units on the site.

Everyman hope the cinema will attract as many as 125,000 customers per year.

Though the building is still filled with workmen, two of the four cinema screens are largely compete with two others not far behind.

Each follows a different colour scheme and will all be filled with a mixture of two and three seater sofas complete with small side tables.

The screens are packed with the latest technology, each with a Sony 4K cinema projector and a Dolby 7.1 sound system.

The largest crescent shaped screen will seat 148 people, while the other three will range in capacity from 60-97 with two also capable of screening 3D films.

Away from the screens the bar area, complete with bespoke lighting, and wood and ceramic tiled walls and floors provides a striking entrance to the cinema.

Crispin Milly CEO of Everyman said: “We were approached by the developer about this site three years ago and it will soon become our 21 Everyman. We are all about offering comfort and luxury hospitality, we employ our staff mainly from restaurants and the hospitality industry so people know they will get that kind of experience.

“By having sofas we have 40% less seating then the equivalent space in a regular cinema, but people come to an everyman for the great experience. If you see a bad film at any other regular cinema, you can come out thinking you’ve wasted your money. We put huge efforts into putting on great films, but even if you don’t think the movie has been great, we aim to make sure you’ve still had a fantastic time.

“Each Everyman does have touches to reflect it’s location, for instance we will have Westside Story mural to reflect Stratford’s connection with Shakespeare, but other touches like the lights and door knobs are the same as our other cinemas because we want people to recognise that they are in an Everyman cinema.

“Our cinema here will employ 30 local people and I believe Stratford is the perfect place for us.”

All these facilities investment has not come cheap though, Everyman is spending three-and-a-half million pounds fitting out the cinema.

Mr Milly explained that despite Everyman’s image as more of an arthouse venue, the cinema will screen a wide range of films for everyone and they are certainly not film snobs.

The cinema has not been without its critics though, as early as the first Bell Court public consultation, concerns were raised about how Stratford’s existing Picture House cinema could live alongside the Everyman.

It was suggested another attraction such as a bowling alley would be more suited for the site, though developers UK and European stuck to their guns and it’s hard to argue that the new cinema does not look impressive.

When asked whether he thought the Everyman Cinema could operate alongside Stratford’s existing Picture House, Mr Milly said: “To be honest even with six screens in Stratford it still puts the town below the national average in terms of people per screens, I think it’s amazing that there have only been two screens in Stratford for so long.

“There’s so many films coming out these days so I don’t think it will be a problem, of course we will show some of the same films, the big blockbusters, but we offer a different experience to other cinemas, a little more expensive and more indulgent. Even if we were a six screen cinema, I would still be confident that both cinemas would do well.

“What is different about Everyman is that we make people fall in love with cinema, people want to come back here again and again. With most other cinemas people go because it is just a place where the film they want to see is showing.”

Look out for more pictures of the new Everyman cinema on the Herald website soon.

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