Survey Data
Reg No
50910253
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Cultural, Social
Previous Name
Dame Street Picture House
Original Use
Shop/retail outlet
Historical Use
Cinema
Date
1870 - 1915
Coordinates
315601, 234018
Date Recorded
25/11/2015
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached single-bay four-storey building, erected c. 1880, converted to cinema 1913, now disused. Long narrow plan, dropping in height to rear elevation on Dame Lane. Flat roof behind moulded parapet. Painted channelled smooth rendered walling to front elevation, having roundels with swags flanking second floor window and containing lettering 'ICC', and with moulded strings between second and third floors. Painted full-width window opening to first floor, with slightly projecting central four-light oriel flanked by concave glazed lights returning to single recessed lights, plain frieze over containing central oval blind oculus with grille, surmounted by upward-thrusting curved moulded cornice and flanked by shallow consoles. Square-headed window openings to top two floors, with timber windows, that to second floor having moulded sill and architrave, plain frieze and vestigial segmental pediment, and central round-headed light flanked by opening casements; top floor opening has plain sill, moulded lugged architraves and three-light casement with inward opening lights. Remnants of original shopfront survive, including slender console brackets and fascia cornice.
Appraisal
The front elevation of this building is the result of F. Bergin's remodelling of 1913 as a cinema, giving it a distinctive appearance. The elegant first floor window and diminishing triple-light upper floor windows provide visual interest. The channelled render and the decorative roundels add further detail to the facade of what may originally have been a two-bay building. It is set in a group of widely differing structures that form the historic essence of this busy thoroughfare.