Former Picture House

Former Picture House

This former cinema on Commercial Street in Halifax opened in 1913 and was designed by William Wormald Longbottom LRIBA of the architectural practice Longbottom and Culpan, based at Somerset Chambers, George Street, Halifax. It is a two-storey building in the Free Baroque style.

The front elevation displays a composition of 3, 5, 3 windows. At the centre is a curved projecting flight of steps leading to a recessed glazed entrance set within a wide segmental arch with many keys. Slender Tuscan columns and half-columns support the entablature of a curved porch with dentilled cornice and top balustrade. Above the entrance, an octagonal tower with angle pilasters and top entablature rises prominently, featuring a segmental head to a door opening onto a balcony. The tower is crowned with a high ogee dome decorated with masks above its base and a ball finial.

The front is constructed in ashlar with a faience entrance. Keyed oeils de boeuf (circular openings) appear on the front and sides with long keys rising to a prominent cornice. Flanking bays project forward with two similarly keyed oval windows positioned above a balcony formed by the porch roof. Giant pilasters define the outer bays; the outer pair are rusticated while the inner pair support a raised segmental cornice of the continuous entablature. The ground floor central lights feature keys and a pediment, whilst the first floor central lights have tall voussoirs. The outer lights on both floors are similarly treated, with swagged sills on the first floor. The roof parapet features angle piers and central panels.

The left return is plainer in style, while the right return is more decorated, incorporating a canted recessed entrance at ground floor level beneath a balcony and a Diocletian window. A small yard to the north of the fly tower is enclosed by high walls with flat stone coping. The roof is covered in dark slates with a lead dome. A ridge ventilator with coped square ridge sits above the fly tower.

Internally, the building retains an original staircase at the front. The small auditorium features a balcony behind the foyer. The auditorium and balcony have received inserted partitions and later decoration which obscure much of the original decorative scheme, though original features nevertheless survive.

The cinema closed in May 1982. Despite subsequent change of use, the building remains virtually unaltered externally and retains many original interior features. It forms a significant architectural group with the listed Civic Theatre and the former Victoria Hall of 1901, making a major contribution to the grandeur of Halifax town centre.