Taste of Italy owner lifts Colchester as Vue opens at Northern Gateway

Vue Cinema opened to customers in colchester on Friday at Northern Gateway Leisure Park, bringing nine screens to a site that had been waiting through years of delay and plan changes. For nearby traders, the opening is the first concrete sign that the park can start drawing the steady traffic it was built to attract.

Northern Gateway Leisure Park

The cinema sits beside Colchester United's stadium, where several neighbouring businesses, including a bowling alley and several fast food restaurants, had already opened before the film site did. Cineworld had originally planned to take the site on in 2021, then pulled out in 2024 during a company-wide restructuring, leaving the leisure park without the anchor attraction that many vendors expected.

Sergio Teacu at Taste of Italy

Sergio Teacu, who opened Taste of Italy at the park in December 2024, said he had feared the business might not survive without customers drawn in by the nearby cinema. On Friday, he said, "Now it's here, I feel genuinely optimistic." He added, "For a small independent restaurant like ours, footfall is everything," and "It's brought a buzz back to the leisure park."

Vacant Units and New Traders

Colchester City Council's Liberal Democrat leader David King said he remained hopeful the opening would attract new vendors and fill remaining vacant units. Labour councillor Chris Pearson said the cinema would bring jobs, boost footfall and further establish Northern Gateway as a key leisure destination. The project was estimated to cost £65m in 2021, and the local authority part-funded the scheme, but the council would not reveal how much costs had risen by.

For businesses already on site, the opening is the missing piece that could turn passing trade into a reliable base of customers. For the park, the test now is whether the nine-screen cinema can do what the original 2021 plan promised and pull the remaining units into use.