Depot

Depot opened on Pinwell Road in Lewes in May 2017, built on a site that had previously served as a GPO depot and, later, a Harvey's Brewery distribution point. Carmen Slijpen, a trained projectionist, and Robert Senior set up the charity Lewes Community Screen in 2011 to build it, and the finished cinema holds three screens seating 307 people between them. Alongside mainstream and arthouse films, Depot runs a restaurant, bar and education programme, staffed by around 80 employees and 55 volunteers overseen by eight trustees. It screens roughly 64 times a week, mixing new releases with documentaries, classics and guest-speaker events. Being a not-for-profit charity rather than a chain shapes its programming as much as its industrial-building past.