The Regent, an iconic building on the Deal seafront, has been empty for a number of years. The Deal Society is keen that the building is reopened as a cinema and frustrated at the delays to this happening.
The building first opened as an iron and glass pavilion in 1928, the current ‘Art Deco’ frontage was added in 1933 when it became a cinema but it closed in 1963 and became a bingo hall which closed in 2009.
During 2011, Dover District Council sold the building to James Wallace and Mark Digweed. In July 2013 a planning application was submitted for the refurbishment of the building into a three screen cinema with cafe/restaurant and snack bar. Although the Deal Town Council planning committee (on which the Deal Society has a representative) raising no issues with it, the planning application was withdrawn on the 1st May 2014. In December 2018 a new planning application was submitted, this was approved on the 18 July 2019 but a standard clause in the approval was that work had to start within three years – that did not happen so the approval lapsed.
In July 2022, Councillor Trevor Bartlett, Leader of Dover District Council, said in answer to our enquiry:
Thank you for your email. We continue to maintain contact with the owners and our understanding is that they are continuing to work on alternative plans for the site which do still include a cinema. Planning colleagues provided some advice on these very early proposals a few weeks ago and I gather that they are now reflecting on these comments in discussion with their architects Clagues. We continue to do all we can to encourage them to take these plans forward although the current economic climate does I am sure present some challenges from a business perspective.
I appreciate that you must find this frustrating as I certainly do, but can I reassure you that we are working closely with the owners for them to put an application into the Council.
In June 2023 a proposal for the redevelopment of the Regent on the seafront has been put out to public consultation in advance of a planning application.
The society is supporting concerned residents who are running a campaign to reopen the Regent with a website at www.reopentheregent.com.
The Deal Society has laid out the following principles by which any planning application should be judged:
- The iconic frontage should be retained
- The historic references to its use as a cinema must be respected and reflected in the use of the building
- The views towards the Timeball Tower and the open space in front of the Tower must be retained
- The economic viability of the development suggests that a mixed use project is probably the way forward
- It is accepted that it may be necessary to lose the original pavilion in order to facilitate that mixed use