Hyde Park Cinema

Cinema on Brudenell Road, Hyde Park, Leeds, dating to around 1914, possibly adapting premises built around 1908. The building is constructed in red brick with Marmo details.

The entrance frontage features a striking 3-storey canted corner bay. The semicircular open lobby is supported by Ionic columns in antis which carry a moulded cornice and entablature bearing raised lettering reading 'PICTURE . HYDE PARK . HOUSE', with a modillion cornice above. The first floor has paired windows set within imitation white stone surrounds featuring segmental arches and keystones, flanked by small-pane sashes. Pilasters between the windows rise through the cornice, leading to a 3-light window at second-floor level flanked by a balustraded parapet. An elaborate moulded Dutch-style gable with ball finials crowns this section.

To the right of the entrance is the auditorium facade, which displays pilasters and three keyed recessed panels flanked by oval blind panels. A panelled door with a flat hood supported by scrolled cast-iron ties sits at the far right, with a dentilled cornice above and a square ventilator with dome at the centre of the ridge.

The rear elevation presents a plain wall to the auditorium with double doors featuring stepped moulded panels at the left. The left return has two bays: the narrow left bay contains a panelled door with hood matching the front elevation, while the wide right bay features a segmental keyed arch containing a 3-light staircase window with slim moulded columns, a central scrolled pediment and stained-glass panels. Above this is a keyed round window serving the projection room, with a moulded gable, and a tall banded corner stack to the left.

Internally, the entrance lobby has a mosaic floor, with paired glazed doors flanking the original ticket booth. The stair hall retains its original paired doors to the auditorium on the right. A divided panelled staircase with square balusters is lit by a 3-light window with painted glass surviving on the left side. A scrolled wrought-iron Art Nouveau light pendant hangs in this space.

The auditorium walls retain moulded panels, pilasters, cornice and a ribbed arched ceiling. Although most visible panels are plain, the original decorative plasterwork survives at the screen end, featuring gilded cherubs, swags and festoons enclosing the panels, with the original screen painted on the west end wall. A central ventilation shaft runs through the auditorium. The circle balcony front features plaster festoons, brackets and shields, with first-floor access through original paired doors whose top panels are glazed in red with engraved stars. The circle seating dates to the 1930s and came from the Gaumont in Leeds.

Other interior features of note include fire hose and fittings at the foot of the stairs, gas lighting to the auditorium, an automatic shutter system to close projection apertures operated from the foyer, a former wide fireplace in the entrance hall altered to form the ticket office, and an ornate door to the basement area serving the gents facilities.

The building is reputed to have been constructed as a hotel by Henry Childs. The site was occupied by the Brudenell Road Social and Recreation Club by 1908 according to Kelly's Directory. It is believed to have been in use as a picture house by November 1914, with the name 'Hyde Park Picture House' listed in Kelly's Directory for 1916, when the manager Joseph A Hardy lived next door. The lower part of the auditorium front wall was originally protected by a glazed canopy, which is no longer present.