They offer Step-Free Access from our Lower Paxton Road entrance – please ring the doorbell and a member of staff will be with you as soon as possible, and we have an Induction Hearing Loop fitted to our speakers in the DOWNSTAIRS seating area. Please inform them when making a booking. Eyles, Allen; Skone, Keith (2002). Cinemas of Hertfordshire. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p.98. ISBN 9780954218904 . Retrieved 23 March 2018. The film still pulses with life; in a movie about making movies, you can really sense the joy they had creating it.

James Hannaway was chosen to front the project after the stunning success of the previously restored Art Deco cinema in Berkhamsted, The Rex, which reopened its doors in 2004 after 16 years of laying derelict. In 1911, Cooper sold his studios and the London Road cinema. It changed hands several times, taking on different names. In 1918, it became the Poly Picture Palace. In 1923, the cinema underwent another refurbishment by Percival Blow, which involved the installation of a balcony with boxes and a cinema organ, and a dance hall and workshop in the basement. From 1926 it was known as The Regent Picture House. [1] Unlike the former Alpha, the Capitol was built long-ways to London Road and access was at balcony level with stalls on the level below. In this incarnation the seating capacity was enlarged to 452 seats in the balcony and 1168 in the stalls. Underneath there were dressing rooms, a deep stage, a formal restaurant, and a Compton organ.

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Cooper wanted to establish a film theatre to present his productions to the paying public, and acquired a public hall building on London Road that had originally been designed for a social institute in 1903 by the local architect Percival Blow (1873–1939). On 27 July 1908, Cooper opened the Alpha Picture House, Hertfordshire's first permanent cinema. The building was fitted out with a restaurant, swimming pool and hairdressing salon as well as the 800 seat cinema. [3] The cinema failed inspection following the passing of the 1910 Cinematograph Act and was sold through liquidation to George Arthur Dawson the following year. The cinema continued to run as the Poly until 1926 and was destroyed by fire the following year. [4] [5]

A campaign was started to raise the money necessary to restore the cinema to its original 1930s state, as a viable private business. Lou Morris, who ran his own cinema chain, sold the Capitol in 1932 along with another St Albans cinema the Grand Palace on Stanhope Road to the D.J. James cinema circuit. Its doors reopened on 27 November 2014 for four gala nights. Invited guests included all the hard working volunteers (from the initial clear out in April 2012), fund raisers, donors, and sponsors. Centring on a trio of actors Don, Kathy and Cosmo (Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor) attempting to save a disastrous period drama by turning it into a musical, whilst also demonstrating to us the changeover from silent pictures to talkies which occurred in the 1920s. Of course it’s about romance - as most musicals are! - but it’s also about the film industry going through a bumpy transition. Shauna Royle, Cineworld Belfast’s General Manager, commented: “We are delighted to finally open our doors to movie fans! We have a great variety of screening formats, offering the most immersive cinema experience in Belfast. We look forward to sharing our love of film with Belfast soon”.

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To celebrate the opening of the new cinema, Cineworld held an opening gala, where guests were treated to food, drinks, and a chance to try out all of the new experiences available at Cineworld Belfast including 4DX, ScreenX, and IMAX.

Locally Listed Buildings: Area 5a: London Road" (PDF). St Albans City & District Council. p.164. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 March 2018 . Retrieved 23 March 2018. Exclusive to Cineworld in the UK and Ireland and rapidly expanding since its launch in 2015, 4DX adds extreme sensory thrills to your cinema experience.In 1932, the Capitol was sold again, this time to the D.J. James Cinema Circuit, and in 1934 the cinema underwent a major extension and refurbishment by the architect firm Kemp & Tasker, expanding the seating capacity to 1,728. The cinema changed hands again in 1937, when D.J. James was bought by Eastern Cinemas, part of the General Cinema Finance (GCF) group, and in 1943, GCF was in turn taken over by the Rank Organisation, who rebranded the Capitol under their Odeon Cinema Circuit name on 1 January 1945. [1] [6] Arthur Melbourne Cooper was born in St Albans in 1874 at 99 London Road. As a teenager, he was inspired to go into the new art of moving photography when he became acquainted with Birt Acres, and he became a noted figure in the history of early cinema as a pioneering filmmaker. Cooper founded his Alpha Trading Company in 1906 to make short films, animations and newsreels. He set up the Alpha Production Works in Bedford Park Road, later moving to larger premises at Alma Road. Among the pioneering films he shot in St Albans was the animated fantasy, Dreams of Toyland (1908). [2]