Bridgwater cinema squatters face eviction after DIY works

Ned, 61, and Dean, 57, are part of a group of around eight people who have been living at the historic town‑centre site for more than eight months without the owners’ permission.

Ned and Dean, who did not provide their surnames, invited the Bridgwater Mercury inside the building to show the unauthorised renovations they've carried out with the help of local volunteers.

The Penel Orlieu cinema first opened as The Odeon on July 13, 1936, before being purchased by Classic Cinemas in the late 1960s, who separated the building into a stalls area for bingo and the circle for two screens.

Scott Cinemas operated at the site from 1983 until closing in 2022, when they relocated to Northgate Yard. Mecca Bingo at the site also closed the same year.

The buildings have now sat formally empty for four years, and tidying them up after years of deterioration, vandalism and arson is no easy task.

Dean, a sound engineer with a background in building, says he was initially hesitant when he first saw the interior of the bingo hall and cinema in March, with missing electrics and plumbing, no water and extensive damage.

"There was a lot of mess everywhere, a lot of stuff still broken, but there was a cleared space in the middle of these piles of rubbish. I was just sold on the amphitheatre kind of vibe... So that's why I came here and started getting involved and tidying things up."

He says the group have taught themselves basic renovation skills but have brought in qualified tradespeople for more complex tasks: "I have electrician friends, if there's something needs doing, I'll ask them to do it because then it can be properly certificated and properly signed off."

According to the occupants, the former cinema now has electricity across most areas and water reinstalled, with toilets and taps back in use.

While the former maisonette housing at the front of the site remains unsafe, they argue the cinema behind is in far better condition.

Ned says: "The frontage gives the impression that the overall, that whole building is derelict and it's not. It's really, really not."

Keeping people out – and inviting some in

Ned believes their presence has been as much about preventing further damage as it has been about using the building themselves.

He says: "On a practical level, it's basically preventing further deterioration of the building.

"[We’re] providing a presence in the building to prevent vandalism, theft and potential sort of harm coming to people interacting with the building ‘illegally’."

"It's really just making the building accessible, from where [there’s been] random vandalism, to bringing it to a place where the public can actually interact with it in a safe environment."

The occupants say evidence of heavy drug use was found when they arrived, including a toilet "full of needles". Although they say local homeless people do sometimes use the building as a base, the group have a strict policy against hard drug use.

Dean said: "Some of the people that were in here in the winter were homeless, didn't have anywhere to stay. They’ve now been homed. But it's helped them enormously, and they did quite a lot in here."

As well as restoration work, they have boarded up windows, chained doors and re‑secured vents to try to combat anti‑social behaviour and arson.

Dean and Ned say attempts by young people to break in are common, often from teenagers who assume the cinema is abandoned. He says they have taken a proactive approach to keeping children away from dangerous parts of the site.

"We do nightly patrols to stop the kids breaking in.

"We've had to have a whole bunch of seven of them, I think the youngest was nine and the oldest was 11, kids on the roof. We had to put a ladder up to get them down because they wanted to climb on the roof, which is rotten through.

"It's a daily and a weekly battle to stop the kids keep coming in. Now we've [fixed] the shutter at the back, it's a lot less."

He added: "All we’re doing is protecting the building. We don’t want people getting hurt."

The occupiers say they are happy to speak to young people who show interest in the building, explain the work under way and offer tours when it is safe to do so.

Community help and police attention

The group say other members of the public have also volunteered time to help with the clean‑up. Dean explained: "[A young man] walked by the gate one day, I got chatting to him, [I invited him] to come in and have a look. And he said, ‘can I help?’

"So he moved all those cinema seats, he cleaned out that room, he was the one who shifted the bags of rubbish, he opened the toilets, he cleaned the floors. He restored a sense of pride in himself."

Drawing on years of live music and festival experience, Dean says that after months of clearing broken cinema chairs and rubbish, the group began exploring ways to use the space for rehearsals and performances.

A DJ rehearsal in early May led to concerns from the public that the building was being used for an illegal rave, and police attended the premises to investigate.

A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: "We are not receiving reports of anti-social behaviour associated with the Penel Orlieu building in Bridgwater.

"We did, however, attend a single report a group of people were playing loud music at the site at around 9.35am on Sunday, May 10. There was no gathering, and one person left music playing overnight."

Fire incident and safety concerns

The group say they have also dealt with more serious incidents. At the end of April, they returned to find a caravan parked in the yard between the buildings had been set on fire.

A member of the public called the fire service, but scorch marks and burned bricks are still visible on the outside walls.

Dean said the incident shook his confidence about staying on site: "I was a bit afraid of staying in my truck, to be honest, after that in case somebody set fire to me while I was in my truck. I was very nervous about that for a while."

Earlier this year, Somerset Council issued notices to the owners warning that parts of the building were "likely to constitute a danger to the public", referring particularly to "rotten decking and joists in the canopy above the public walkway".

The notices called on the owners to "take immediate steps to render the structures safe" and inform council officers of their plans.

When no action was taken, the occupants say they removed the rotten decking themselves to reduce the risk to passers‑by.

Occupants served eviction notice as they call for a long-term plan

The occupants say they have now received a notice of eviction from the owners, identified as Orlieu Solutions Limited, with a court date set for 12 August.

They say they intend to comply with any court order but are trying to negotiate a lease or property guardianship arrangement that would allow them to stay in the building legally and continue their work.

Ned says his motivation is to protect the historic building and bring it back into community use, even on a temporary basis.

He explained: "Why I'm here is because I believe that community needs rallying points, where people can come together and grow together.

"When something is on the edge of collapse and people can come together and start to rebuild something locally together, it brings about a social cohesion."

Orlieu Solutions Limited has been contacted for comment.