Tatton Cinema

Tatton Cinema is a cinema built in 1933 by Joseph Gomersall of Drury and Gomersall. It features a brick and rendered exterior with a hipped Welsh slate roof and a tiled ridge on the front block, although this is not visible from the street. The building is designed in a Neo-Egyptian style, showcasing an impressive frontage with full-height pylons flanking the entrance. Above the entrance are four columns with lotus capitals that once supported the name PYRAMID and a clock, both of which are now missing. The pylons include plain shop windows below and tall narrow windows with projecting cornices above, creating the impression of a gateway at Thebes in a Hollywood Biblical epic.

Inside, the cinema retains a complete and little altered Egyptian decorative scheme, with details apparently taken from Banister-Fletcher. The foyer features a terrazzo floor and a compartmented ceiling, along with a staircase and an upper foyer with a balcony. There is also a ballroom above the front foyer, all of which maintain their original decoration. The auditorium remains largely unchanged, except for the addition of acoustic tiles lining the walls and ceiling. The wall decoration and light fittings, including a central chandelier, are all intact. The ceiling is adorned with triple friezes that encircle the space, framing the screen partly with these friezes and decorated jambs, as there is no proscenium arch.

Tatton Cinema is a remarkably complete and never divided cinema, exemplifying the rare Egyptian idiom.