Survey Data
Reg No
14306013
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Cinema
Date
1940 - 1945
Coordinates
255279, 280106
Date Recorded
18/04/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached eight-bay double-height cinema, built 1944, on a rectangular plan with single- or two-bay double-height flat-roofed projecting block (west). Closed, 1981. Now disused. Two recessed doors with terrazzo steps, with concrete canopy above. Three windows with a continuous sill to first floor, above which is raised lettering. Roughcast-rendered walls with buttresses and pitched corrugated roof to auditorium.
Appraisal
This cinema is a typical example of mid twentieth-century functional architecture. Its design is simple yet stylish, incorporating elements such as terrazzo and narrow windows. It stands as a reminder of a period in social history, when every sizeable town in the country had a cinema, which was an important social venue, before the arrival of television.