The Bill Douglas Centre

The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture contains both a public museum and an academic research centre, housing one of Britain's largest public collections of books, prints, artefacts and ephemera relating to the history and prehistory of cinema.

The Bill Douglas Centre opened to the public in the autumn of 1997 as part of the British celebrations of the centenary of cinema. Unlike the majority of these celebrations, the Centre is a permanent facility, encouraging the ongoing enjoyment, understanding and study of the twentieth century's greatest popular art form and its precursors.

The Centre was founded in commemoration of film maker Bill Douglas, one of the British cinema's most innovative auteurs. At the heart of the Centre is the remarkable Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection of approximately 50,000 items. The collection was formed over many years by Bill Douglas and his lifelong friend, Peter Jewell. Bill died in 1991, and Peter subsequently donated the Collection to the Exeter University Foundation.