Haverhill Arts Centre offers warmth and free movies to help those suffering during energy crisis

Haverhill Arts Centre has come up with an innovative way to provide both a warm space and free entertainment for people struggling to afford to turn on their heating at home.

The centre’s freshly-opened (as of Monday) coffee bar – found where the café once was – is set to be turned into a ‘boutique cinema’, where films will be shown for free on most days during the month of November.

Dan Schumann, Haverhill Arts Centre manager and creative director, said the idea was to offer people worried about the cost of turning on their heating at home a place where they could sit in the warm with others and watch a classic film for free – with the added option of buying a drink or a snack if they wished.

Dan said the idea was partly inspired by the current nationwide promotion of the warm hubs concept, in which those managing public buildings are being encouraged to open them up for free use by people impacted by the energy crisis.

“The arts centre is a public building and very much a part of the community and we always wanted it to be that way,” said Dan.

“We decided we ought to offer the arts centre as a warm hub but rather than just say come in and sit in the warm, we thought what can we do that’s more interesting than just sitting in a room.”

The free films will be themed each week and include My Fair Lady, West Side Story, The Dam Busters, Churchill, The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Judy.

They will be shown on a large screen bought by the town council, along with licences to screen the films, and mounted on the coffee bar wall with its own mini sound system, described by Dan as a ‘boutique cinema’.

He added: “It’s pretty relaxed. It’s not formal in any way and it’s totally free. There is no charge for it. It’s just part of the warm hub offer.

“It won’t be as big a screen as you get in the cinema but it will be much more significant than what you have at home.”

The warm hub will remain through the winter, but the free films are to be shown on a trial basis for November. If the take-up is good the arrangement will be extended.

The coffee bar is open from 10.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday and 10.30am to 2.30pm on Saturday and each film will start at 1pm, with Oliver! the first film on November 2.