History
The cinema occupies Suckling House, a partly medieval merchant's house in St Andrews Street, named after the Suckling family who owned it in the sixteenth century. The oldest surviving parts of the building are from the early fourteenth century. The front of the house in St Andrew's Hill dates from an eighteenth century renovation. A brick building, known as Stuart Hall was added on the east side in 1925.
Suckling Hall was last used as a residence in 1915. It was bought by the Norfolk News Company in 1916 who made some repairs before selling it to Ethel Mary and Helen Caroline Colman in 1923. They restored it and added Stuart Hall, intended as a public hall with a capacity of around 450 people fitted with a cinema projector and screen. In 1925 they presented Suckling House and the new hall to the City of Norwich to be used for "the advancement of education in its widest and most comprehensive sense".
Cinema City first opened at Suckling Hall in April 1978 as a cinema seating 230. Renovations took place in 1981 including a new projection box, stairs and box office. The Great Hall became a bar and the vaulted bay nearest the hall was turned into a kitchen.
Read more about this topic: Norwich Cinema City
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