Bury St Edmunds Abbeygate Cinema outlines safety measures as it prepares to reopen

A cinema in Bury St Edmunds has outlined the safety measures it will implement as it prepares to screen films again.

Abbeygate Cinema, in Hatter Street, will start matinee/teatime screenings from Friday, July 10 with a selection of favourite film titles, hits of the last few years and audience requests plus Screen Arts highlights.

Meanwhile, its No.4 Restaurant & Bar reopens on Saturday, July 4.

It will introduce a number of measures to keep cinema-goers safe including:

• A ‘concierge’ will greet all customers for restaurant and cinema at the entrance door to assist with directing to the right part of the building. This member of staff will also take details to support the NHS Track & Trace service (if applicable).

• Films-goers should arrive no more than 15 minutes before the show start time.

• Hand sanitiser will be available throughout the building, and a dedicated hand wash point has been installed.

• Enhanced cleaning programmes to clean and sanitise the regular touch points such as handrails and door pushes throughout the building.

• Protective screens at the box office/kiosk and bar serving points.

• All employee and customer areas will be arranged and managed to encourage and maintain social distancing including extra staff on duty, floor markings for queuing and a one-way system.

• A queuing system using the upstairs function room will be introduced so customers can safely queue for the toilets before and after a film showing.

• Due to the constricted nature of some of the transit spaces upstairs, staff and customers will be required to wear a facemask in these areas. This will not be necessary on the ground floor. Customers are welcome to wear their own – one can be provided – and once customers are at their cinema seat, or back downstairs, they can remove your facemask.

• To allow social distancing inside the cinema screens, they are implementing a new allocated seating system which will ensure a safe distance between customers from different households.

• Film start and end times will be more greatly staggered than normal to allow customers to enter and exit without crossing paths with customers going in or out of other screens. Additional cleaning time will also be added to ensure a full clean and sanitisation process can be conducted between films.

• Tickets can be purchased in person, but Abbeygate encourages all customers to book in advance to help maintain the correct social distancing measures. Cash will not be accepted for in-person sales.

In the restaurant:

• All dining spaces will have 2m distancing between tables.
• Booking a table in advance via their website is recommended.
• Food and drink orders will be taken at the table, with cutlery and condiments placed at the table after ordering. Those dining can pay their bill at the table too via card.
• An 'order at table' online system will be introduced in the coming days to enable customers to place direct food orders through to the kitchen.

Visit www.abbeygatecinema.co.uk