The Ashford Cinema becomes Loop on Friday 27 November: bowling, darts, karaoke, a bar and paid workspace, and the operator says more than 30 new jobs.
The Ashford Cinema is being rebranded as Loop and reopening as an all-day venue on Friday 27 November, adding bowling, interactive darts, karaoke, a bar and kitchen, live events and a paid workspace to the screens at Elwick Place. The operator says the change brings more than 30 new jobs to the town.
The announcement came to us on Tuesday from Loop, along with two designers’ visualisations of the finished rooms. Nothing has opened yet, and the pictures on this page show what the operator intends to build rather than what is there now.
What is being added
Loop says it will run 11 different social and interactive entertainment experiences. It names four of them: bowling, golf simulators, interactive darts and karaoke. The other seven have not been listed.
One of the four is already trading. Two TrackMan golf bays opened at the cinema on 4 September, at a starting price of £28 for a bay of up to four people for 55 minutes.
Beyond the games, the operator describes four more strands:
- Live events: comedy, live music and quizzes.
- Community activities: pilates, yoga and salsa, plus chess tournaments and Dungeons & Dragons.
- Food and drink: pizzas, burgers, sharing dishes, sides and a bar that Loop calls “an impressive bar area” at the heart of the space.
- Workspace: half-day and full-day passes alongside membership options, pitched as “a place to work, meet and take a break outside of the traditional office environment”.
The cinema itself stays. Loop says it “will remain at the heart” of the venue.
What the operator says
Keith Pullinger of The Big Picture, the business that has run the cinema for the past two years, put it this way:
“Loop is about creating somewhere that feels easy to come to and easy to enjoy. Whether you’re here for a film, coffee with a friend, a family day out, a few hours of work or an evening with friends, there’ll be plenty to experience and plenty of reasons to come back. The cinema will always be an important part of what we do. We’re building on that to give people more reasons to visit and more to make the most of their time here. We’re really excited to be bringing something new to Ashford, a place with so much to do, whether you’re coming for a film, a meal, a game or an event. There’s still plenty to reveal, and we can’t wait to share more over the coming months.”
The claim underneath that is a commercial one, and it is the company’s own: The Big Picture says it has increased cinema admissions by more than 25% since taking on the management of the building two years ago, and that the growth came from bringing in more family audiences and a wider range of programming. We have no independent figure for admissions at Elwick Place, and the company has not published the underlying numbers.
The jobs
Loop says the expansion creates more than 30 new roles across entertainment, events, food and drink and workspace. Ben Hammond, the general manager, said:
“We’re looking for people who are warm, friendly and full of energy, people who genuinely enjoy creating great experiences for others.”
“The team will be at the heart of what makes Loop feel different. We want every visit to feel easy, enjoyable and welcoming, and we’re looking for people who share that approach and want to be part of creating something new for Ashford. There are more than 30 new roles coming up, and we would love to hear from people who want to be part of it.”
Hammond is the same general manager who fronted the golf simulator launch in August. People who want one of the roles are asked to register their interest on the Loop jobs page. No individual vacancies, hours or rates have been advertised yet.
The part the announcement leaves out
The cinema at Elwick Place is not an ordinary town centre tenant, and neither the press release nor the Loop website mentions who owns it.
The operating company is Ashford Cinema Limited, number 15473154. Checked again today, the Companies House register still records Ashford Borough Council as the only person with significant control, notified on 7 February 2024, holding 75% or more of the shares and 75% or more of the voting rights, with the right to appoint and remove directors.
So this is a rebrand and expansion of a council-owned business, managed by a third party. We set out the company’s first accounts, the £100,000 secured loan from the council and the two charges registered against it in our report on the golf bays. The next set of accounts, the first covering a full trading year to 31 March 2026, is due by 31 December.
The council’s other cinema project, the former Odeon on the High Street, is on a separate track and a different site. Designs for a theatre inside it went on public show on 18 September.
What it means for you
Nothing changes before 27 November. The cinema and the golf bays are trading now under the existing name.
Check the parking before you plan an evening there. Free parking after 3pm at Elwick Place ends on 1 November, three and a half weeks before Loop opens, and is replaced by a £1 flat charge for anything left overnight plus an extra hour of full-tariff charging in the afternoon. That change is separate from the wider tariff review, which Cabinet deferred to 8 October. Our page on parking in Ashford has the current rates.
No prices or opening hours have been published, for the games, the food, the events or the workspace passes. Neither has the full list of the 11 experiences, or whether the workspace and the community classes will run alongside daytime film screenings. Loop says more will be revealed before launch, and is taking sign-ups for a newsletter called In the Loop at loopashford.com, with a prize draw for what it calls a VIP experience attached.
If you are looking for something to do before then, see our guide to things to do in Ashford.
Sources
- Loop press release, “Introducing Loop: Ashford’s new place to go, again and again”, issued 23 September 2026, supplied to The Ashford Times with images
- loopashford.com, Loop
- Ashford Cinema Limited, company 15473154: persons with significant control, Companies House, checked 23 September 2026
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