Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge

The Central Cinema opened in Hobson Street in 1921.  The first talkie Broadway Melody in Cambridge was screened at cinema in 1929. It was rebuilt in 1930 to give the current building probably after a fire. The cinema closed in 1972 and became a bingo hall.

Lowry refers to the cinema in Ultramarine when Dana recalls the cinema when the crowd in the Dairen cinema start protesting; "I thought, my God, one might as well be back in the Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge! The whole bloody business a retrogression, anyway. A small boy chased by the Furies. Good God, good God."

We must assume that Lowry frequented the cinema while at Cambridge University. Perhaps the crowd of sailors that "clapped and stamped, roared and spat and belched." (Pg.99) reminded him of undergraduates in Cambridge. ( The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's "Tender Is the Night" Malcolm Lowry, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen Pg. 8)