Assembly Hall Of Jehovahs Witnesses

Assembly Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 456 Palatine Road, Northenden, Manchester

This building was originally constructed as the Forum Cinema in 1933-4 to designs by architect Charles Hartley. It is built of dark brown facing bricks with a steel frame and faience central feature. The building now serves as an assembly hall for Jehovah's Witnesses, having previously operated as the ABC cinema until its closure in 1974, then as a live theatre.

The exterior presents a symmetrical Moderne facade. The central faience feature is recessed and stepped up in the middle, oversailing the flanking parapet. Five sets of double entrance doors are positioned at ground level, topped by a canopy with chamfered corners. At first floor level are five tall, slender windows; the central three have canted, quasi-Egyptian style tops. The flanking brick areas contain twin symmetrical arrangements with blocked doorway apertures at ground level, from which rise tall faience panels each containing a small square aperture, a tall narrow one, and another small aperture with neo-classical grilles for ventilation extract, all surmounted by lozenge devices supporting flagstaffs. A double stepped parapet crowns the facade.

Long return walls are articulated with symmetrical arrangements of vertical faience incorporating doors under rectangular windows and small narrow vertical windows serving lavatories, followed by stepped-up areas with panels probably used for film advertising hoardings. The auditorium's steel frame is expressed by buttresses, the inner mouldings dying into the parapet. Beyond rises the tall bulk of the stage fly tower.

The interior features a foyer leading to a large Moderne style double-height auditorium with a single balcony. The rectangular proscenium is framed by embellished triple lighting coves. The ante-proscenium comprises a dado, above which are long, stepped-up balconettes and elaborate plaster decoration designed to conceal the organ chambers, resembling traditional church organ pipes. These features are flanked by decorated roundels and surmounted by sunbursts. The ante-proscenium splay terminates in a curving false proscenium with fluted pilasters and stylised Ionic capitals. A ridged ceiling extends back over the balcony. The wall areas between the ante-proscenium and balcony front are enlivened by large vertical panels. Emergency exit doors are positioned in the side walls of the auditorium. The fluted plaster balcony front is decorated with roundels. Access to the balcony is in the angles of the rear wall. A deep compartmentalising vault on the balcony soffit incorporates fluted banding and roundels containing honeycomb plaster ventilation grilles. The stage and fly tower are deep in plan. The upper foyer has a ridged and arched ceiling with a streamlined plaster central feature.

The Forum is an unusually large and elaborate suburban neighbourhood cine-variety theatre of the 1930s and represents a good example of the Moderne style, with a virtually unaltered auditorium that remains largely intact.