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OUR
COMMUNITY
Welcome to Our Community.
The Broadway is located in the heart of Prestwick. Every resident of our town is within a 20-minute walk of our cinema, with 200,000 people within a 20-minute drive. We are a 5-minute walk from Prestwick Town railway station on the Ayrshire Coast Line, and bus services stop right outside the Broadway heading to Ayr, Troon, Irvine, Kilmarnock, the Clyde Coast, and Glasgow.
If we could hand-pick a location for the Broadway, we wouldn't move an inch.
The support we have felt in Prestwick and our surrounding communities has been overwhelming. The momentum we have gathered in 2023 has been enormous and is still building at a rapidly increasing rate. We now have over 400 official members of the project, with thousands of followers on social media and recent nationwide media coverage in national news and radio outlets.
We are incredibly grateful to do what we do and we are devoted to creating the best cinema and inter-generational community hub for all of you.
A living room for the town.
A cinema for all.
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CURRENT MEMBER COUNT:
425
We have held several community engagement events over the last few years, with many more on the horizon. We want to bring you along on every step of the Broadway's journey.
Below you can view the latest community news updates and read in-depth recaps on all community engagement events we have held thus far.
COMMUNITY NEWS
COMMUNITY EVENTS
FOYER OPEN WEEKEND
PRESTMAS 2023
THE BROADWAY CINEMA
SATURDAY 25TH & SUNDAY 26TH NOVEMBER & SATURDAY 9TH DECEMBER 2023
On Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th our foyer was open to the community once more, as our Art Deco entrance doors opened up to reveal a projectionist's winter wonderland! Our trio of donated projectors were on display to the public for the first time, and in a regional exclusive, the first 35mm film was shown in Ayrshire for over a decade! Demonstrations took place at set intervals throughout the day courtesy of our chief projectionist, as the magic of film was brought back to life in 2023.
The weekend also marked a historic moment for the Broadway, as the first cinema tickets were sold from the original ticket booth for the first time since the final screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976! The Broadway Christmas Film Festival officially launched, and patrons were overjoyed to reserve their seats from the Broadway's foyer, many for the first time! The foyer also featured all-new Christmas decorations, including a beautiful tree donated by Eden Garden Centre in Dundonald, and a heritage display with items taken from our collection that will one day form the Museum of Scottish Cinemas.
The event then concluded with a very special lights show of our own! The Broadway's former café was illuminated once again in a dazzling display to help celebrate Prestmas and bring life back to the Broadway's upper floors. The weekend was a great success and we were absolutely delighted to welcome you all to the Broadway this Christmas!
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VOLUNTEER OPEN NIGHT
THE BROADWAY CINEMA
THURSDAY 25TH MAY 2023
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In May 2023 we were delighted to host an official volunteer open night, and open the Broadway's doors to the public for the third time since the project's inception!
The primary goal of the evening was to vastly expand our volunteer force, and vastly expand we did! We particularly were searching for new volunteers to join our Events Team, for the launch of The Broadway Pop-up Cinema Roadshow that was fast approaching the following month. We were thrilled to go from 3 official volunteers to 33 in just a couple of hours, as we were overwhelmed with the numbers of enthusiastic community members who came along looking to get involved! We were also fortunate enough to gain volunteers for several additional roles, including media production, projectionist support, and social media administration.
The evening was also the perfect opportunity to create an updated history exhibition for all who attended, with several items on show to the public for the very first time. The Peerless Magnarc projectors, original cinema seat, and various reels and rewind items from Carlton Bingo Stirling were on display, alongside our existing collection from the Broadway and the Green's Playhouse, two wonderful member donations, and the first few items saved from Carlton Bingo Partick. These items will all help form the exhibits of the Museum of Scottish Cinemas in the future, and it was a delight to show them to you for the first time.
Thank you to all who attended and signed up. The future is bright!
COMMUNITY OPEN WEEKEND
FEATURING EMPLACE DESIGN (HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY)
THE BROADWAY CINEMA
SATURDAY 18TH & SUNDAY 19TH FEBRUARY 2023
We were delighted to have the opportunity to welcome you all back into the Broadway for the first time in the project's new era! The weekend was co-hosted with our incredible team of students from Emplace Design. Chlöe, Louise, Ella and Aislinng all represent Heriot-Watt University and we were thrilled when they collectively chose the Broadway as their project during their final year.
They have been working tirelessly for months on developing a full structural analysis of our building, working to incredible levels of detail in recording the dimensions of the Broadway's steel frame, the condition of the beams and of the bricks and masonry and learning how that deterioration is likely to affect the building's future. With that we have been able to gain a crucial understanding of the Broadway's structure and the next steps we will need to take in preserving that, and how we redevelop the building mindfully, sympathetic to the original design.
In their research, Emplace also developed a community engagement plan, to help us discover what parts of the Broadway's structure and soul are the most important elements to consider for our project's future, and we were delighted to have the opportunity to host this Open Weekend as a chance to start that research, and discover your own visions for the Broadway Cinema of the future and what our beautiful building means to you!
The Broadway's foyer was transformed into a vibrant design workshop with interactive displays, regularly hosted talks by the students and our directors, an extensive heritage exhibit, structural baking, and of course bringing back to life the foyer itself and the amazing original features that still remain to this day. A huge thank you to Emplace Design and all who came along!
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THE GRAIN EXCHANGE
HISTORY EXPERIENCE 2022
THE GRAIN EXCHANGE, HIGH STREET, AYR
TUESDAY 8TH TO SUNDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2022
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In February 2022 we were incredibly excited to partner with the Grain Exchange in Ayr High Street to create our second official heritage event.
The Grain Exchange is an arts and culture hub operated by South Ayrshire Council and situated in the centre of Ayr High Street. Their space is available for a wide range of events including indoor markets, cultural festivities and, in our case, heritage events! Our director Kyle curated a history experience that filled the available space with a wide collection of local cinema artefacts, photographs and information.
The event primarily focused on showcasing the Other Cinemas of Ayr & Prestwick along with the Broadway itself. Being situated in the centre of Ayr provided the perfect opportunity to create for the older generations of our surrounding communities a trip down memory lane, no matter what former cinema of the area they visited most often! From the Broadway to the Orient and the Regal to the Ritz, every former cinema across the two towns was covered in greater detail than ever and to compliment this we showcased a widened collection of the artefacts shown first on Doors Open Day 2021.
Highlights included the former projector lamphouse, film reels and original light fittings of the Green's Playhouse. All-new for this event was also a wonderful digital presentation by director Guy which included wonderful archive footage of original Pearl and Dean adverts! A huge thank you goes out to Joan, Raymond and Jenny from the Grain Exchange for their amazing hospitality and help throughout the two weeks.
DOORS OPEN DAYS 2021
THE BROADWAY CINEMA
SATURDAY 11TH & SUNDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021
In September 2021 we were thrilled to sign up for Doors Open Days, to open the Broadway's doors to the public for the first time in over a decade!
To invite the community back into the Broadway again for the first time as Friends of the Broadway Prestwick was a historic occasion for the group, and a very special weekend for our members and supporters! Due to the majority of the building unfortunately still being unsuitable to open to the general public, we were able to isolate the foyer of the building as the available space for the event, and as the main attraction our director Kyle curated a history exhibit.
The exhibit was the first of its kind for the group and for the town, and was split into two sections. In the centre was a large display board, on one side showcasing the exhibit The History of the Broadway, and on the opposite side the bonus exhibit Other Cinemas of Ayr & Prestwick. To partner this exhibit we created static display tables showcasing a wide variety of cinema artefacts, equipment and documents from the Broadway and also from the former Green's Playhouse in Ayr!
When conducting research for the exhibits Kyle visited the Green's Playhouse, then Mecca Bingo, to learn more about the building's history. On that visit we were donated a wonderful heritage collection from the building including an original projector lamphouse, vintage film reels and seven original light fittings of the Playhouse. A huge thank you goes out to Chris, Neil and Susan from Mecca Bingo for their hospitality and incredibly kind donations.
The weekend was a wonderful success for the group, raising support for the project immensely and giving the community a delightful trip down memory lane, laying the foundations of our wider heritage project for the future!
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