‘A tipping point for the city’: anger in Birmingham as Electric cinema closes | Birmingham

There are growing calls to protect a street in Birmingham that was home to the UK’s first purpose-built repertory theatre, a pub that hosted Black Sabbath’s first gig and the country’s oldest working cinema, with two of the three venues now closed down.

The closure last week of the Electric cinema on Station Street, 114 years after it opened its doors as the first movie theatre in the city, has prompted outrage among residents and claims that it could become a victim of cultural vandalism.

The cinema’s owners have not yet spoken publicly about their decision to close but there are…