‘A tipping point for the city’: anger in Birmingham as Electric cinema closes

Campaign to save UK’s oldest working cinema and designate Station Street ‘a historic asset’ launched amid redevelopment plans

There are growing calls to protect a street in Birmingham that was home to the UK’s first purpose-built repertory theatre, a pub that hosted Black Sabbath’s first gig and the country’s oldest working cinema, with two of the three venues now closed down.

The closure last week of the Electric cinema on Station Street, 114 years after it opened its doors as the first movie theatre in the city, has prompted outrage among residents and claims that it could become a victim of cultural vandalism.