Market Pavilion, Blyth, Northumberland
In the heyday of the cinema, children in the North West of England could trade clean jam jars at the box office for a part or the whole price of a ticket. The practice was subsequently copied across Britain, and it’s remembered in the name of Tyneside’s pioneering community cinema, a charity based in a converted job centre in Whitley Bay.
The Jam Jar Cinema was founded by Dan Ellis, then aged twenty-three, in 2013 to allow local people to see movies in a welcoming environment run by local staff and volunteers. Dan and his founder colleagues, Stephen Fairly and William Smith, ensured that the standard of comfort was high from the outset: most of the original seats were unused Odeon Premier seats, supplemented by sofas.
The opening night audience was nineteen people watching Gladiator. This initial auditorium was supplemented by two more in 2019, along with a bar and lift. The respective capacity of the three screens is 50, 29 and 38.
The whole place is welcoming – “We offer a cosy hug rather than a corporate handshake”. Dan, who says he has the best job in the world, declares, “For me, it’s always been about creating as magical and premium an experience as possible – but also affordable,”
In 2019 Dan introduced a tiered pricing system, ‘Pay as you Please cinema’, because “We appreciate that people haven’t got as much money in their pockets as they once did.” Customers are invited to choose a price that’s right for their situation by selecting either the standard Tier 2, currently £9.00/£9.50, or a lower Tier 1 (£7.50/£8.50), and anyone who feels able to pay more can use Tier 3 (£10.50). No questions are asked or judgements made.
The Jam Jar Cinema received ‘Small Business of the Year’ and ‘Heart of Gold’ accolades in the 2020 Small Awards, and in 2023 Dan Ellis was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to cinema.
Northumberland County Council appointed Dan’s Jam Jar Cinema to operate the prestigious Market Pavilion in Blyth as “a vibrant and welcoming arts centre that will revitalise the community and encourage investment, developed with input from local residents”, designed by the Newcastle architects FaulknerBrowns.
The council’s aim is to draw local people to the neglected town centre by planting a social hub in the once-popular market place. The Pavilion has three cinema screens, a 120-seat performance space called Studio 25, a bar and café. It’s fully accessible and very comfortable, and is planned to attract 60,000 visitors to Blyth, generating £3.1 million visitor income and create 58 additional jobs.
This uncompromising and attractive building was opened in 2025 on the site of the former Central Cinema (built 1924; closed 1961; demolished 1974) with an extensive cultural festival of free events entitled Blyth Celebrates. The Pavilion’s brick and glass structure is pleasant to look at and to look from, and it sits comfortably with the surrounding traditional buildings and the traditional markets held on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
This flagship initiative didn’t come cheap, of course. It was funded by the UK Government’s Future High Street Fund and Northumberland County Council as part of the £90 million Energising Blyth regeneration programme that’s intended to “advance Northumberland’s economic prosperity, regenerate communities, improve liveability and create a more connected and aspirational County”.
This Newcastle University Business School case study indicates that the Jam Jar magic is working in Blyth: Case Study: Market Pavilion, Blyth | Newcastle University.
I’m grateful to Charles Hooton for his itinerary and excellent programme-notes for the Cinema Theatre Association tour ‘Silver Screens of Tyneside and Teeside’ (April 20th-23rd 2026).