Down But Never Out:
How the Closure of The Electric Cinema is Affecting Birmingham’s Urban Artistic Landscape

Conny Rose | 28.08.2026

Editor’s Note:
Conny’s conversation with Lee Nabbs occured on the 12th April 2026, initially planned to be part of an article on the closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, and how it appears in relation to Birmingham’s own relationship with closure.

Finished on the 12th of August, the article exists in different times - The Electric Cinema has been locally listed, and now the Midlands Rail Hub Alliance’s plans to revive Moor Street Station up to Bordesley means that Digbeth is under similar threat of closure. Today is the last day that you can submit feedback on the plan - if you would feel affected by the plans, it’s important to research the MRHA’s proposal for reshaping Digbeth, and respond with your questions and concerns via this form.
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The Electric has always had an extraordinary kind of magic emanating from it, more so than your average multiplex; you can really feel over a century of history and the devotion to The 7th Art in the building.

Cinemas are a place to check out of the real world, and into a story that can move you almost inexplicably to the point of tears, to joy, to fear, to a feeling you just can’t describe. Maybe I’m biased, but to me no cinema embodies that more than The Electric. Between the nostalgic archive of decoration and the love and enthusiasm both of the patrons and the staff, The Electric is truly a powerhouse of Birmingham’s love of film. I will never, ever forget what it felt like to walk into The Electric Cinema for the first time.

Unfortunately, on the 29th February 2024, The Electric closed its doors permanently. Just like that, the UK’s oldest working cinema was open one day and closed the next, as the building’s lease was up and property developers were intending to apply for permission to demolish the cinema, along with several other buildings on Station Street. 115 years of artistic history seemingly gone, not with a bang, not even with a whimper, but simply with the quiet locking of a door after a day of screenings. This was a pretty rough blow to an already fairly devastated arts scene in England’s Second City, after Birmingham City Council – which declared itself bankrupt in September 2023 – announced it would axe its arts funding by 2026 in an attempt to bring themselves out of debt. Suddenly it seemed as if a cloud of despondency had descended over the city’s arts scene.

But all hope was not lost yet. As ever, Birmingham’s cinema lovers rallied together to defend the beloved institution. Lee Nabbs, director of The Mockingbird Cinema in Digbeth, has been a central figure in the fight for The Electric to be given listed status, because...

“...for me, The Electric is not just another old building. It is part of Birmingham’s cultural memory and the identity of the city. Places like that give a city continuity. They tell people that culture here has weight, history and value. A city remembers what it chooses to keep.” He continued, on the subject of his own involvement in the campaign, “if you want a good outcome, you cannot just shout from the sidelines. You have to get in the room and make the case for something that actually works for the city.”

For Nabbs, the great concern about the impact of The Electric’s closure extends beyond the loss of one building, instead speaking volumes about the city’s approach to its artistic landscape. “This is not just about heritage in the abstract,” he commented, “[it] is about whether Birmingham is serious enough about its cultural infrastructure to protect it properly and secure an outcome that is worthy of what the building means to the city.”

But it’s not simply a matter of the city’s reception of the arts needing to be strong, rather the artists themselves too. “What I have seen hit most by the slashing of arts funding by Birmingham City Council is resilience,” Nabbs continued. “When I took over the Mockingbird, I always knew it had to stand on its own two feet. Grants can be important and they can unlock things, but I have never believed you can build something sustainable if you rely on them entirely. Passion matters, but so does a business model, even if it’s on the back of a fag packet or in your head, as long as you know and believe in it and fight every day for it… you have to be adaptable, commercially aware, and honest about what actually keeps the lights on.”

I’ve found it quite difficult to write this piece, as someone whose soul is definitively Brummie but who hasn’t lived in Birmingham for many years. I almost wasn’t sure it was my place to comment but then I thought, sod it, passivity will kill us faster than any social impoliteness. Similar things are happening to the arts scene here in Glasgow, where I live: the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) on Sauchiehall Street closed originally temporarily in December 2024, and then permanently in January 2026. But, as ever, Glasgow has also once again shown the world hope by finding a positive outcome to the insecurity of Trongate 103’s future. After being told that the rental rates of the building were being quadrupled, the arts groups that use the space met with relevant members of Glasgow City Council to discuss their future, resulting in GCC creating proposals to support Trongate 103 financially, and looking into reintegrating Trongate 103 into GCC’s remit. This serves as a reminder, certainly to me, that the UK’s urban artistic spirit cannot - and will not - be killed.

It seems sensible to compare the arts scenes of Birmingham and Glasgow as the two cities have a lot in common, but the kind of infrastructure and support Glasgow's artistic landscape has far exceeds the state of things in Birmingham. This is likely because Scotland is a much smaller country with fewer cities and so more resources can be allocated to the more populated urban hubs. This gives validation to Glasgow's Second City Status in a way that Birmingham has never received, not just in terms of artistic infrastructure, but also other public services. Glasgow and Birmingham both have very multicultural and multidiscplined arts scenes, a great deal of drive and passion for each city from its artists, an enduring artistic history, so why should Birmingham not be afforded the same level of support, respect, and resources for its artistic landscape?

It feels worth mentioning that I work in the artistic sector in Glasgow, in television, and I would not be able to have the kind of career I am having if I was in Birmingham, because Lee is right. Without the cultural infrastructure to support the artistic landscape, the scenes simply cannot grow the way that they should. The spirit and talent is very much there, the city just needs to invest in its artistic side, or else we will continue this cycle of Birmingham talent moving away for work, taking the talent and training with them, and not coming back to build things in their hometown.

When asked about how Birmingham’s financial state is affecting the arts scene on a day-to-day basis, Nabbs stated...

“The cuts have made life harder across the board. People sometimes talk about them as if they were one dramatic moment, but a lot of the damage is slower than that. Teams get stretched, organisations get more cautious, risk-taking gets harder, and people spend more time surviving than building. It has been sad seeing so many organisations and businesses struggle. When you can’t take risks because you haven’t got a pot to piss in, the magic is lost.”

However, it’s not all doom and gloom: “at the same time, I do think Brummies are resilient. We are good at graft, and we are good at getting on with it. We are small and scrappy at the Mockingbird, but we care deeply about the city, and that is why we do things like International Day of Birmingham and Reel Brum, often for huge amounts of time and not much money. You have to balance the passion projects with the money makers.”

In recent good news, it was announced in August 2026 that the Electric Cinema building has been added to Birmingham’s Local Heritage List. While this list does not offer protection from demolition, it does mean that the building’s history will be formally acknowledged, and taken into consideration in any future planning endeavours. Although the fight to save and reopen The Electric is far from over, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

So, all that is to say, that the challenges Birmingham’s arts scene currently face aren’t deterring the city’s artists - instead, it’s helping them to shape the future of their own endeavours and the city’s as a whole. “I love this city,” Nabbs stated firmly, pride oozing through every word, “I love my staff, and I love what we have built at the Mockingbird. We have some exciting things coming, and I think the next version of the Mockingbird, whether that is 2.0 or beyond, will come directly from everything we have learned about how to survive, adapt, and grow here.”

When asked about whether he had noticed any positive outcomes of the recent changes, Nabbs said, “yes, the fight. People fight here, and they should. You fight for the places that make people belong. We should be fighting for a better screen culture. We should be fighting to get directors here for Q&As. We should be fighting to make Birmingham a real centre of film and TV, not somewhere that gets a moment in the spotlight and then goes back to acting small… What gives me optimism is that there are exceptional people in this region, and people are stepping up. There is real momentum, but momentum is not the same as infrastructure. If [The Mockingbird] can play even a small part in that through Reel Brum and the wider work we do, we will. I want to see writers, directors, producers, crew and actors from here getting onto major productions, then coming back and building things here too.”

But he also made a plea for help from those that help provide the spaces needed by Birmingham’s artists. “We need landlords to look at what they are doing,” he said, “[they] have to let smaller organisations survive, and give them a chance to pop up and fail without losing everything. If you give people a chance, some of them grow, and those are the ones that go on to be world beaters.”

For Nabbs, in order for the city’s arts scene to thrive, it is not enough to simply preserve what has survived the circumstances thus far. “Yes, absolutely, there is hope. The answer is not simply trying to get back to what things were ten years ago. The world has changed too much for that. What I want is not a nostalgic reset. I want Birmingham to be more ambitious and more confident about culture than it was before. I want a city that backs its venues, backs its talent, and takes itself seriously enough to build long-term cultural infrastructure instead of always reacting when something is already in crisis.”

While yes, Birmingham’s arts scene is struggling, its spirit is alive and kicking. Despite the state of the city’s finances - as well as the difficulties faced by artists in this day and age - people like Lee, and other passionate Brummies, are taking this opportunity to exercise their resourcefulness, to rally their community around a common cause, and to look ahead to a brighter future for Birmingham’s arts.

“The future could be strong, because the talent, the appetite, and the momentum are here. You can feel that in Digbeth, in the wider WMCA push around screen industries, in the studios conversation, and in the people already making things happen locally. But none of that means much if it is not matched with proper long-term support and infrastructure. Hope needs more than headlines. That is the big test for Birmingham now. Not whether we can talk a good game, because we can. It is whether we back the people and places already doing the work.”

Footnotes

We urge everyone who has read this piece, if they haven’t already, to look into the MRHA’s proposal for Moor Street Station into Bordesley, and to submit your feedback, to ensure their decision is made with the upmost of voices of those who would be affected by the plan.

For more information about the ongoing work to save The Electric Cinema, visit Savetheelectriccinema.com, or read Flatpack Director Ian Francis’ views through Birmingham Dispatch’s article ‘Can This Man Save The Electric?’.

Petitions to sign:

https://www.change.org/p/designate-birmingham-s-station-street-a-historic-cultural-and-civic-asset

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