Former Picture Palace Cinema, Prescot

Former Picture Palace Cinema, Prescot

This former cinema and variety theatre, built in 1912, was remodelled from two 19th-century townhouses in Edwardian Neo-Baroque style. The building incorporates stucco plaster and render with red brick masonry, a steel and concrete frame, and slate roofs.

The building consists of three main elements: the cinema itself with a front range containing the public foyer and offices, a broadly rectangular auditorium projecting to the rear, and two front ranges (one two-room deep, the other single-room deep) attached to the east side.

The building stands on the south side of Kemble Street, east of the junction between Market Place and Sewell Street. The main north-facing elevation presents six bays across three and two storeys with a partial basement, all rendered brick masonry under pitched roofs. The eastern three bays, rising to three storeys, form the original cinema frontage. A blind balustraded parapet crowns this section, featuring a central segmental shaped moulded panel decorated with a scrolled and garlanded cartouche, set above a moulded roof cornice and entablature. Behind the parapet sits a pitched roof with two rendered brick stacks at the eastern edge and another below the ridge west of centre.

From the first floor upwards, above a moulded string course, rusticated stucco quoins and three slim moulded stucco pilasters rise up the facade. Each pilaster terminates with a shield applique adorned with acanthus leaf drops. The upper floors contain three windows each, all with ornamented moulded reveals, most now fitted with replacement modern wooden windows. At second floor level, two moulded square windows flank a circular keystoned window ornamented with a double swagged garland surround. The tall first floor windows are each surmounted by a pulvinated entablature. The outer windows feature friezes ornamented with plaster double swagged garlands connecting to the windows above, while the central window is terminated by a bracketed semi-circular pediment with acanthus scroll appliques to the jambs. The ground floor has ashlar inscribed render with a modern central flat lintelled doorway flanked by two arched windows. To the west, an early 20th-century blocked flat lintel doorway, formerly the projectionist's entrance stair, retains a rusticated stucco quoined right pilaster jamb, a remnant of the original ground floor pilaster main entrance jambs.

The east return is rendered with a range of blocked windows across all floors, each with projecting sills, plus a blocked doorway. One off-set window with projecting sill appears at first floor level, and a small square upper window sits off-set in the gable end.

Number 10, to the east, is a two-bay three-storey 19th-century building with a moulded roof cornice. It has two windows per floor, all with projecting stone sills (the ground floor windows are late 20th-century insertions). An early 20th-century moulded and decorated stucco pilaster rises from the first floor in the eastern bay to match the cinema frontage.

Number 8 is an early 20th-century single-bay, two-storey shop with Edwardian shop fronts at both ground and first floor levels, each with cornices resting on moulded shop-front brackets. The ground floor has a stall riser and external east door. The east return is blind.

Extending from the cinema's rear is a two-storey seven-bay auditorium constructed of brick with six brick piers concealing reinforced concrete or steel columns. Flat sandstone lintel windows with projecting sills and curved lintel soffits puncture the upper walls of the east and west elevations. The auditorium's east elevation has four upper windows, a blocked ground floor rowlock arched window, and an arched emergency door at the north end. A 1970s flat roof single-storey extension is attached to the south end. The west elevation is supported by five brick piers, and the southern six bays project outwards to form a wider auditorium section. Two upper windows appear in the second and fourth bays from the north. The ground floor has a blocked rowlock arched doorway but is mostly obscured by 1970s extensions attached to the auditorium. The south return is plain brick with a stone skew-coped gable end and a 1990s first-floor two-leaf patio door with metal balcony.

The interior retains exceptional early 20th-century features. The original rectangular entrance foyer, now accessed through a late 20th-century entrance porch, preserves early 20th-century (1912) acanthus leaf ceiling roses and egg and dart plasterwork coving. The south wall has three original two-panel doors with decorative projecting moulded mid-rail motifs and glazed top panels. Two two-leaf doors with moulded architraves access the rear of the auditorium, while another opens to the balcony staircase. An inserted toilet sits behind the late 20th-century east foyer window.

The double-height barrel-vaulted rectangular auditorium, decorated in Edwardian Baroque style, extends south from the foyer with its plaster decoration unchanged. It has a segmental barrel-vaulted ceiling with six rib bands decorated with interlocking plait plasterwork edged by egg and dart mouldings. Between each rib are three moulded plaster panels: the central panels ornamented with six stucco acanthus wreaths with inset decorative ventilation roundels set at every alternate wreath, and the outer panels with ceiling rose light fittings every alternate bay.

The auditorium side walls are divided into bays by six pilasters with a projecting entablature (with egg and dart moulding) and string course. The latter and plaster framed panels form keystoned lintels to the upper auditorium windows. Bays without windows are ornamented with double swags of fruit and foliage garlands with a central scrolled cartouche (one partially concealed beside the balcony's first floor emergency exit). The floor is raked with 120 early 20th-century tip-up cinema seats that have been re-set and re-upholstered, some featuring wavy Art Deco motifs on the steel end panels.

The structural frame of an original balcony remains at the rear of the auditorium, complete with stairs. Late 20th-century temporary partition walls are attached at ground and first floor. Four original cast-iron balcony columns remain at ground floor level (boxed in) with supporting beams above. The balcony has a flat floor, except for a section of original raked flooring leading to an early 20th-century first-floor fire escape door. Late 20th-century wall partitions have been inserted within the space to form temporary rooms, one of which re-uses a ground floor balcony column for structural support. The 1940s stage lighting and other electric switchboards are retained against the rear west wall of the auditorium.

At the south end of the auditorium, the suspended flat lintel proscenium arch survives in situ. The string course forms the lintel of the arch, with keystoned mouldings set either side of the opening. It has scrolled brackets resting on Ionic capitals, with rectangular moulded panels to the soffit marking the width of the screen. Set above is a scrolled cartouche ornamented with a cherub's head and roundel bearing the painted inscription: 'God is Love 1 John. CH.4. VS8.' An inserted late 20th-century L-shaped staircase at the east side of the late 20th-century stage gives access to an inserted upper room behind the arch. Late 20th-century doors in the southern bays of the auditorium access the east and west extensions.

The first floor is accessed from the auditorium balcony, which opens into a corridor leading to a bathroom and two rooms, all with moulded 19th-century door architraves, dado rails, skirting boards and 20th-century doors. The second floor, now accessed by the late 19th-century staircase in number 10, leads to a corridor giving access to a bathroom and three small rooms. South of the corridor, the floors and walls are built of heavy solid filler-joist concrete with cast-iron supports and house the early 20th-century projection room. The second floor projection room is off-set higher than the auditorium vault and retains an early 20th-century side room for film reeling or storage, with original opposing doors—one four panel wooden door and a steel door.

The interiors of numbers 8 and 10, now sub-divided, are accessed through openings in the cinema auditorium walls (partial inspection only). The north room of number 10 has a cupboard door opening into the former ground floor projectionist's stairwell, now void with one quarter winder in situ. The south rooms retain a remodelled early 19th-century timber door with 20th-century etched glass panes. Further subdivided rooms exist on the first floor of numbers 8 and 10, with early 19th-century reeded cornicing and a late 19th-century first-floor open string staircase with decorative brackets.