Vue Cinema opened its doors to customers at Northern Gateway Leisure Park in Colchester on Friday, finally bringing a nine-screen cinema to a development that had been waiting years for a key anchor tenant.
Cineworld had originally planned to take on the site in 2021, but pulled out in 2024 during a company-wide restructuring, leaving the leisure park in limbo. The cinema's arrival is expected to be closely watched by nearby traders who have been trying to build footfall at a site next to Colchester United's stadium.
The project was estimated to cost £65m in 2021 and was partly funded by the local authority, but the council has not said how much the total has risen. That reluctance leaves one of the central questions around the scheme unresolved, even as the first customers began filing into the building.
Several other businesses had already moved in before the cinema opened, including a bowling alley and fast food restaurants. But many vendors hoping to set up shop later followed suit or paused plans after Cineworld withdrew, creating a gap that has shaped the park's early trade and slowed momentum across the site.
Colchester City Council's Liberal Democrat leader David King said he remained hopeful the new cinema would bring in fresh vendors and help fill vacant units still open at the leisure park. Labour councillor Chris Pearson said the opening would bring jobs, boost footfall and further establish Northern Gateway as a major leisure destination.
For Sergio Teacu, who opened Taste of Italy at the park in December 2024, the cinema's arrival was more personal than political. He had feared the business might not survive without customers drawn in by the nearby screens, but said, "Now it's here, I feel genuinely optimistic." Teacu added that for a small independent restaurant, footfall is everything, and said the opening had "brought a buzz back to the leisure park."
The opening does not erase the delays that slowed Northern Gateway, but it does give the site its first major draw and a better chance of becoming the destination developers promised.
