The Scala in Angel Place has a £104,158 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to record memories of its cinema years, 1922 to 1973, before they are lost.
The Scala in Angel Place has won £104,158 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to collect memories of its years as a cinema. The building showed films from 1922 to 1973.
The charity running the new Scala arts centre announced the grant on Monday 19 October. It pays for a project called Reel Memories, which runs from October 2026 to May 2028. (Scala Worcester, 19 October 2026)
Why now
The charity’s point is simple: the people who went to the Scala as a cinema are getting older.
Dr Hannah Phillips, Scala Worcester’s chief executive and artistic director, said: “Memories of Scala as a cinema are still just in living memory and we want to capture people’s memories and memorabilia whilst we can.”
She said ticket stubs found during the building work “have already generated a flurry of responses”. The stubs on the charity’s announcement include a rear stalls seat for Ben-Hur, priced at six shillings, and two stalls tickets at 44 new pence.
What the money pays for
The grant funds two posts: a Reel Memories project manager and an outreach and education co-ordinator. According to the charity, they will run:
- memory sharing events for people who went to the cinema
- archival research into the Scala and Worcester cinemagoing between 1922 and 1973
- oral history recordings
- film projects with local pupils
The results go into a timeline and a website about the cinema. The project ends in 2028 with an event at the Scala showing what was collected. The charity lists an interactive game, a film made with the community, an exhibition, podcast plays and digital resources.
Who is involved
Scala Worcester names eight partners:
- Julia Letts of LettsTalk, an oral history specialist
- Stanley Road Primary School
- Newbridge School
- Worcester City Council
- Worcestershire Camera Club
- Heart of Worcestershire College
- the University of Worcester
- Worcestershire Archives Service
The building and the reopening
The Scala opened as a cinema in 1922 and closed in June 1973. It later had other uses, most recently as a slot machine arcade, according to Worcester City Council.
It is now being rebuilt as an arts centre, with the neighbouring Corn Exchange, as part of the council’s Angel Place regeneration. The charity says the new Scala will open “next year” with a 147-seat cinema showing independent and event films.
The council’s own report in September put the public opening at June 2027, later than first planned, and asked councillors for another £1.5m to finish the work. Our report on the extra funding has the detail. The heritage grant is separate money, for the history project rather than the building.
What it means for you
If you went to the Scala as a cinema, or your parents did, this is the project that wants to hear from you. Ticket stubs, programmes, photographs and stories of first dates and Saturday matinees are exactly what it is looking for.
The charity has not yet published how to share memories. Until the project manager is in post, the route is the contact form on Scala Worcester’s website, or post to Scala, Angel Place, Worcester WR1 3QS. We will add the details when the first memory sharing events are announced.
Sources
- Scala Worcester, Scala Worcester awarded funding to celebrate the city’s cinema heritage, 19 October 2026
- Worcester City Council, Construction work starts on Worcester’s new arts centre, 20 January 2025
- Worcester City Council, Scala Arts Centre Project: Final Construction Phases, Policy and Resources Committee, 1 September 2026
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