After 30 years of showing all the latest film releases, Vue in Cambridge closed in June. The cinema added its name to the list of Grafton Centre companies that have closed amid plans to turn the site into a life sciences hub. This fate also meant Vue joined a fairly long queue of the city's lost cinemas. At one point in time, between 1938 and 1956, there were at least nine cinemas in Cambridge. Today, we have just a third of that figure: Arts Picturehouse on St Andrew's Street, Everyman in the Grand Arcade, and The Light at Cambridge Leisure Park. As an elegy to lost screens and uneaten popcorn, CambridgeshireLive has decided to rewind the clock and remind ourselves of a few of our old cinemas. Do you remember going to see a film at any of these spots? Although this building on Mill Road came to be known by locals as 'the fleapit', it was not always a cinema. It started out as a town hall opened up by local liberals in 1881, which hosted public meetings and music hall entertainment acts until its theatre licence was lost three years after its opening. The site was run by the Salvation Army for the next 25 years, after which it was rebranded as The Empire by a man called Fred Hawkins. Here, locals were wowed by some of the earliest types of motion picture films, while still having the opportunity to view some of the traditional, music hall-style acts. The Empire became The Kinema in 1916, but the model of films alongside variety and musical acts continued for many years. In 1966, the focus turned to bingo, although the occasional late-night film was shown at the bingo hall. Having grown dilapidated after closure in 1985, the building was knocked down to make way for a student accommodation block in 1996. Like The Empire, The Rex was one of the city's earliest cinemas. Before the screens appeared, however, the site on Magrath Road had been a sporting spot. It first opened in 1909 as a roller skating rink, bringing a hobby that had become popular by the end of the 19th century to the city. After a stint as a wartime factory producing pyrometers, which measure the temperature of objects in the distance, the first films were shown here from around 1919. It had become an ice skating rink in 1919, but a cinema and a ballroom were added to the offering. The building burnt down in 1931 and was refurbished, reopening as the Rendezvous Cinema in 1932 with more than 1,100 seats. It was renamed The Rex in 1937, but loud crowds of film fanatics began to earn the cinema a bad reputation among locals – with one person describing it as "a menace". In the late 1960s, it was replaced with a bingo hall and nightclub, before the site reverted to its role as a cinema in around 1972. The Rex was knocked down in 1979 and the area was covered by a car park. Since then, the land has been developed, with a row of homes now situated on Magrath Avenue. The Picture Playhouse Although other cinemas preceded it, The Picture Playhouse on Mill Road has the special title of being the city's first ever purpose-built cinema. The art deco-style spot was built in 1913. Customers were invited to enjoy films inside opulent surroundings, characterised by white marble entrance steps, gilded décor, and amber and pink spotlights. There was a barrelled ceiling inside the auditorium, and seating for around 900 people. The operation of the cinema moved from Cambridge Picture Playhouse Ltd when it first opened to Union Cinemas in 1927, and later to Associated British Cinemas (ABC) in 1937. After 43 years of entertaining the people of Cambridge, the cinema closed down in 1956. It became a Fine Fare supermarket in the 1960s. Having taken on a later role as a Salvation Army shop, the building is a supermarket once again today – this time around, it's a Co-op. The second purpose-built cinema in the city was The Tivoli, which is now the name of a pub offering crazy golf and shuffleboards on the same site. The cinema was built in 1925. The lower end of the cinema was said to flood when the river level was high. However, the end of the cinema was brought about by financial damage rather than water damage. The Tivoli's closure in 1956 has been put down to the introduction of entertainment tax. In another blow to the site – this time in its role as a pub – the building was hit by a devastating fire in 2015. Its doors reopened in May 2022, and The Tivoli introduced a games offering that draws in groups of friends and competitive couples. The Victoria Like The Playhouse, The Victoria came to be replaced by a high street shop. The art deco exterior of the cinema on Market Hill has been retained, but today it forms part of the Marks and Spencer store. The building opened for film-lovers on August 28, 1931, when a Cambridge Evening News reporter described the auditorium as "an example of complete harmony between the architect and the decorative painter". Plans to turn the cinema into an M&S were announced in 1987, and the last film was shown here in 1988.