#Story
An eventful night at the Cinema
The modern-day Ellen Terry - Coventry University building was once the Gaumont Cinema, during the Second World War, and suffered damage as a result of the bombings during the Blitz.
The Gaumont Cinema, Jordan Well, was a vibrant cinema where many from the city went to watch everything from Hollywood films through to news reels.
On 14 November 1940, Alice Farmer, a Coventry resident, had gone to the cinema for the evening. She recalled that shortly after the film had started, at around 19:00, the raid had begun.
This was the Luftwaffe‘s (German Air Force) targeting of Coventry under the operational name of Moonlight Sonata. Nearly 500 aircraft bombed the city for eleven hours.
Alice recalled how the bombs began to fall, and the sound of explosions were heard. One bomb then hit the rear of the cinema sending it into darkness. Alice quickly realised that she had been injured in the blast and needed help. She was moved to the front foyer of the cinema where they awaited ambulances to arrive.
She recalled that she was loaded onto the ambulance, which to her surprise had no rear doors - the doors had been blown off in a blast. As the ambulance drove through Broadgate she was able to view the destruction that had been caused in the initial hours with fires burning all around, “It was horrible and very frightening”.
She arrived at the hospital close by and was quickly taken inside to be treated. Alice remembered as she lay in the corridors, the hospital had no electricity. The doctors and nurses were trying their best in testing conditions, observing and treating people using candlelight. The sound of the bombs bursting still echoing around the city.
Alice was eventually treated, with the wounds to her face and leg stitched up. She was then observed throughout the night before being transferred to Warwick Hospital the next day.
50 years after this eventful night, Alice said that whilst at Warwick Hospital, X-rays were conducted, and shrapnel was seen in both her face and leg. She underwent further options to remove it however some small fragments remained with her for the rest of her life.