Update on the works...

The asbestos removal is complete and floorboards removed where the second screen will go, so just a few more days of digging down, a few steels to put in place, and we'll be able to start the building-back-up phase. It does all look very bare-bones and hollow right now - do pop your head in to say hello/have a nosey if you're passing - but the work is on track, Jonathan and the team have everything in hand.

The red-brick frontage will soon be revealed in all its cleaned and repointed glory, and the bricked-up windows have been bashed out, ready for the sashes to be reinstated. We've had a truly amazing response to our request for donations to help us with the fixing up of the facade - £1,720 has been contributed via the Donate button on our website, and a further £4,000+ has been given and pledged directly.

This  generosity might mean that, just as with the auditorium in 2019, fully half of the cost of the restoration of the facade of our wonderful building will be 'owned' by supporters who have treasured the place for decades - we are so proud and humbled to be custodians of such a well-loved institution!

See below for details of how to donate on the website, but we are also more than happy to have cheques made out and sent to the Keswick Alhambra Cinema, 36 St John's St, Keswick, CA12 5AG, or paid directly to our bank account: Keswick Alhambra Ltd., sort code 20-45-45 account no. 53166880 (Please use your name and 'donation' as the reference, and do send us contact details or email address so we can thank you and take your name for inscription on our 'wall of supporters' if you'd like to be on that.

The donate button on our website is the same system as you'd use to book a ticket with, using your debit or credit card - but instead of a ticket, when you click 'DONATE NOW' you can sponsor a cleaned-up, repointed brick, or a pane of the new sash windows, with a £10 or £20 donation, or more.

If you've already got a log-in from buying tickets with us in the past, it'll be a breeze - if not, you can either create an 'account' with us by entering your email and creating a password (so the system remembers you on future occasions, when you buy tickets), or just put your name and email address in the lowest section, that says 'Continue as guest' - that'll take you through to the place you can make a payment without any password malarkey! (Apologies for the clunkiness of this method - we know that the log-in page has put off a lot of people, which is why this time I also gave our bank details, and we are more than happy to be sent cheques either!)

We are going to reinstate and open up the original sash windows in the facade (film posters will only feature on the side of the building), repair the round stained-glass windows, and have the beautiful (but leaking) red Accrington brick facade cleaned, repaired and repointed.