Celebrations for Ten Years of Totnes Cinema

Last Friday, Jane Hughes, Will Johnson and a team of enthusiastic staff and volunteers opened the doors for a welcoming party celebration of a 10 year success story. A large gathering of invited guests were entertained by piano playing by Sam Richards with DJ music to follow.

Totnes Cinema has one of the most unusual and storied histories of any small‑town picture house in Britain — a building that has repeatedly reinvented itself while remaining a cultural anchor on Totnes High Street. Its origins stretch back to 1885, when the structure first opened as the Temperance Hall, built by William Reeves as part of the local temperance movement. The hall served as a community venue for decades, hosting exhibitions, public gatherings and even the Home Guard’s standing‑down dinner in January 1944.

Totnes’ first cinema was opened on Thursday 27th December 1928 by Mr H. G. Tapley. The Mayor officiated, and the opening film was “Ben-Hur”, starring Ramon Navarro. It was purpose built out of iron and concrete on the site of a Post Office.= featuring a stage and dressing rooms. The proscenium had the town’s coat of arms above it. The site burned down on the 4th March 1944.

“It’s my form of escapism!”

Cinema returned here after the Second World War. In 1946, the hall was converted into the Central Cinema, though this first incarnation was short‑lived, closing just a year later and briefly relocating to the Seymour Hotel. Films returned to the original building in 1951, when it reopened as the Romany Cinema, run by Kelvin D. and R. Grenville White of the Romany Film Unit. This period established the hall as Totnes’ main picture house, showing films for more than a decade until it closed on 3 September 1964, when the proprietors hoped, unsuccessfully, to relocate.

After the cinema closed, the building entered a completely different phase of life. From 1964 to 2013, it housed the Devon County Library, serving generations of Totnes residents before the library moved to The Mansion.

The modern revival of Totnes Cinema is a story of local passion and improbable opportunity. When the library closed, the building was put up for auction. Jane Hughes, a clinical psychologist, and her husband William Johnson, who had long worked in the film industry, saw a chance to bring cinema back to the heart of Totnes. They purchased the building in 2014, acquiring two 35mm projectors, seating and even a coffee machine salvaged from a demolished Film4 screening room. A major fundraising effort followed, driven by community support.

After 50 years of closure, restored as a community‑run, not‑for‑profit venue. Further refurbishments — including soundproofing, a balcony, under‑floor heating and the creation of the “Royal Box” — were completed over the following years. Today, Totnes Cinema is known not only for imaginative programming but also for its distinctive cabaret‑style seating, bar and live music and theatre. Starting off primarily with volunteers, the project has been successful enough to now run with a mix of paid staff and volunteers.

Mary Popham who began as a volunteer at the beginning and is now part of the regular staff and often seen preparing cocktails said “I love cinema and I love this place in particular. I couldn’t believe my luck when I came to the open day being just around the corner from where I live.”

I see a woman sporting a butterfly henna tattoo saying Ten Years of Totnes Cinema’ covering her back – She is Charlie Cooper, previously a Cirque du Soleil performer who also works at the cinema and is projectionist on Saturday nights said “I used to make cakes for Jane and Will and then I was working in the Cafe and started on Front of House and I love it here” She continued “It’s my form of escapism!”

So does Will think the last ten years have been worth it? “Oh God, I don’t see it that way at all! It’s just got better and better. It’s gone really well and I love it more and more.”

Will is also responsible for much of the artistic installations in the cinema with ingenious mechanical shutters and stained glass windows, “I literally had bits of glass in the carpet in the living room!” What does Jane feel after 10 years? “I love, love it! I’m amazed that people feel as passionately as me about it and have come on board with us – I’m quite emotional about it. I can’t imagine Totnes without it now.”