Garden Square	Shops on Garden Square

To date in the summer of 2019 a massive four plus million visitors have attended the retail complex down at Rushden lakes, and the developers wanted to add another 29 units to the existing 50.

The autumn of 2018 had seen yet another large building get under way, this was next door to the Card Factory, and the steel erectors were enjoying some sunny weather to go about their job.

The roofing contractors were making things a bit more water tight as we went in to mid December, 2018. The New Year was well under way, and even more eating places were coming on stream, this included Nando's, the burger restaurant Five Guys, and in February we saw Heavenly Desserts open their doors.

Work was pushing along with the L shaped West Terrace, this would be the long awaited home of the fourteen screen multiplex Cineworld cinema, and the Garden Square is situated nearby.

During mid February the exterior wall of the cinema that faces Ditchford lane and the west was decorated with loads of decorative lights, that were glowing red in colour.

Late February and the leisure outlets seemed to be very busy during the school half term period, with children and parents taking advantage of ways to burn off some energy.

The jewellery company Beaverbrooks has notched up 100 years of trading in 2019, and would be opening a new store at the Lakes in the summer months.

You will be able to take advantage of the latest mobile phone devices courtesy of the Three network as they were the first such company to come on site in 2019.

Other openings were 360 play, Rock up, Paradise Island, Zizzi, TGI Friday, Frankie and Benny, another coffee shop, this time it's Out of Office coffee house topping up your cup. Not forgetting Chiquito, Flip Out, and everyones favourite, and the highly successful "Greggs" were adding this as their second cafe in Rushden, the original one is in Rushden High Street.

Summer was now with us, and the corporate signage went on display on the new Cineworld cinema, and was now just days away from bringing the thrill of the "pictures" back to Rushden after so many years in the wilderness.

Since mid January over one hundred workers per day had been on site, making sure that all the latest equipment and technology would be up and running in good time.

No doubt film buffs had been wondering what the first film to be shown would be at the Lakes?
We can confirm that the first film to be shown was "Toy Story 4" which was released in the UK only the week before the cinema opened.

The previous three films in the saga have really done well for themselves, with earnings of over $1.9 billion worldwide for the Disney owned Pixar. 'Toy story' was the world's first fully computer generated feature length animation, and seems to make several repeat showings on UK TV to date.

As you can appreciate, some pioneering technology will be thrilling the crowds in the shape of the I-MAX
auditorium, this can seat 412 customers. The screen is a whopper, coming in at 20m x 14m, and matched by a sound system with 12 channels to carry you away with the action.

This will be Cineworld's 100th cinema in the UK and Ireland, and Georgina Jones was the new general manager in charge; she has been living in Rushden for about 15 years so far.

It is some years since the closure of the Ritz cinema, which was our last cinema in town, becoming the "Flutters" bingo hall back in 1991. At one stage Rushden enjoyed the choice of three cinema's; they were the Palace (in the high street), The Theatre (now Asda supermarket), and finally the Ritz in College Street.

As a matter of interest the first film to be shown at the Ritz was back in 1936, and was the "Trail of the lonesome pine" co-starring Henry Fonda.

Back in 1973 plans had been approved to build a supermarket in the place of the Ritz, obviously this all fell through, and I am glad to say the building survives to this day. (2019)

I took a look at the Garden square section of the development, and was pretty impressed how this area gives a cozy and comforting oasis to the Lakes by way of a contrast to some of the other areas that may seem a bit more hectic. The mix of shops looks good, with the choice of a jewellers, a phone shop, and some very nice watches on sale in Tag Heuer.

And in between of all that shopping this looks a perfect place to sit and relax, to gather your thoughts, in what seems like a well planned and thought out corner of Rushden Lakes.

Entrance to Cineworld	Anyone for popcorn

So the big, and long awaited day arrived, and the weather was perfect for the eager initial customers to get the first experience of "Cineworld" in Rushden, the mercury hit 25C, and everything felt and looked good.

Payment terminal

Long gone are the days when the films would be delivered to the cinemas in a lorry, or van carrying large silver coloured cans containing the several reels of film. Now Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. The movie is now contained in a USB type cartridge that has a massive amount of storage space, and is code protected against "Piracy". And the projector has also moved on from the type that had a costly and powerful bulb, to the latest laser technology for the full digital delivery.

Admission prices have a price range for the standard film fo-rmat of £11.60 for an adult, and children costing £ 8.60. For the full experience of a film in "I-Max" it is £16.30 per adult, with children being charged £13.30 to get in.

During the week of the opening, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic recorded their highest temperatures for June, in some places it was hitting 45C. Meteorologists said hot air drawn in from northern Africa was responsible, this also affected us in Rushden over the weekend, with highs of 34C being recorded by the Rushden weather station: http://www.rushdenweather.co.uk/template/indexDesktop.php

Mr Graeme Bloom, the first customer

Many thanks to the management at Cineworld who granted me permission to take shots inside the complex, after they had unlocked the doors at exactly 9.45 AM.

As there are so many new, and maybe entertaining films coming our away to Rushden in future, perhaps you may like to check out what you fancy seeing on the Cineworld web page for Rushden? So Summer 2019, and Rushden is now able to enjoy, and maybe boast that we have one of the very best cinemas anywhere in the country, and will no doubt be pulling in the audiences from much further afield.

In fact the very first paying customer through the doors at Cineworld was big film fan Mr Graeme Bloom, who had travelled in from Bedford. Graeme's choice for today, and being customer "number one" it was to be "Toy Story 4" which had its first showing at 10.30 on a Friday morning, all on schedule on June 28th, 2019.