Abc Cinema

ABC Cinema, Ward's End, Halifax

The ABC Cinema is a cinema with an integral row of shops to the north facing Alexandra Street. It opened in September 1938 as the Regal Cinema for the original ABC company (Associated British Cinemas). The building was designed by architect William Riddell Glen, FRIAS, LRIBA (1884–1950).

The building is constructed in thin courses of squared stone with ashlar panels and dressings. Its plan forms a rounded triangle and is executed in the Moderne style. The structure rises to two and three storeys, with a 1:3:6 window arrangement to Commercial Street.

The exterior features an entrance with vertical tiles on curved sides framing three pairs of renewed glass doors, with a fascia that projects in two stages. Above this sits an ashlar panel with projecting end fins acting as pilasters with bands in place of capitals. A nearly full-width projection contains triple lights set in an architrave, with long fluted aprons to these windows which have horizontal metal glazing bars. Small narrow lights flank this group. The roof parapet has a central projecting block.

To the left of the entrance block, a shop features a plate glass window below a deep fascia in green vitrolite, with two windows of two lights above under a deep ashlar frieze and flat coped roof parapet. Behind this, the curved wall of the cinema rises to full height with a single window at third storey level.

To the right of the entrance, the ground floor is of rusticated ashlar with deeply recessed openings for two emergency exits and hatches. Above, windows are arranged in two-storey panels with fluted decoration joining lower and upper windows and a deep ashlar lintel band. From this, a second curve with two lights breaks forward to join the right return, with windows of one and two lights featuring metal horizontal glazing bars. Rendered patching to the first floor is visible at the continuation of the broad band of green vitrolite, with metal framed two and three light windows to the first floor.

The right return to Ward's End has a canted wall with a large blank centre space, with window panels containing two and four lights either side. The ground floor level projects as a curving wall with a symmetrical arrangement of a deeply recessed exit door at the centre flanked by two sets of single-light paired windows. At the extreme right is another ashlar panel with five windows containing one, two and three lights.

The interior features a foyer with stepped roof panels and an original stair at the right. The fan-shaped auditorium originally housed a single cinema but now contains two small cinemas inserted, leaving the balcony and original full-height proscenium as a third cinema. This retains banded flanking walls with fleur de lys finials to shallow pilasters. The proscenium arch has a panelled architrave surrounded by an ornate grille and is flanked by curving fluted recesses containing statues on fountain-shaped plinths (replacements of the originals from the demolished ABC Harrogate). The ceiling is in a subdued Jacobean style with strap decoration and pendants. Some original fine wood doors with rich glass viewing panels survive, along with fluted curved coping to the balcony foyer.

Despite subdivision into multiple cinemas, the auditorium remains a notable example of William Glen's work, where he combined Moderne with historical styles. Virtually all cinemas built by Associated British Cinemas in the 1930s have been drastically altered or demolished, making this building, with much surviving original decoration, a rarity. The unusually bold, fortress-like exterior adds to the building's architectural interest.