Elite Building

Cinema and shops, built in 1921 and altered in the mid-20th century, with a conversion in 1991. Designed by Adamson & Kinns, the building is of steel frame construction with concrete floors, brick cladding, and a white faience facing with dressings, topped with slate roofs. It has a plinth, sill, and lintel bands, along with relief friezes between the floors, a scalloped main cornice, and a stepped coped parapet. The building is four storeys plus attics, with a nine-window range and an L-plan layout. The majority of the windows are original swing casements with glazing bar upper lights, arranged within bays defined by full-height pilasters, each capped with a niche and an enriched bracket supporting an allegorical figure. The main front has a triple entrance bay with a mid-20th century door canopy, and a pedimented dormer with a round-arched window. Above, 3 bays each display three tripartite windows on each floor. The ground floor features segment-arched openings containing mid- and late-20th-century shopfronts. At each end, an angled corner bay incorporates a round-arched ground floor window and a pedimented dormer with a segment-arched window. The right return, facing Queen Street, has two glazed bays akin to the front facade, followed by seven blind bays with segment-arched shopfronts added in 1992. The left return, on King Street, features two glazed bays mirroring the front and a narrower entrance bay with a recessed glazed door flanked by curved shop windows. Above this entrance are two windows on each floor. The interior retains public rooms decorated in various historical styles. The largely original auditorium has a square proscenium arch, a cartouche, and supporting figures above. The side walls feature three panels in the shape of round-arched windows, framed by columns, portrait medallions, and swags, with an elaborate frieze of figures. The ceiling is reticulated and coved over the balcony and simpler coved to the rear. The first-floor foyer is in the Adam style exhibiting panelled walls and a coffered ceiling featuring corner arabesques. The second-floor foyer displays Jacobean Revival details, including framed panelling and a strapwork ceiling; a fireplace bears the monogram EPT (Elite Picture Theatre) in the overmantel. The second-floor restaurant is in Classical Revival style with panelled walls, double Ionic pilasters, and modillion cross beams to an enriched ceiling, accompanied by a fireplace incorporating a mirror. A side room on the second floor is fully panelled and features a frieze depicting nursery rhyme scenes.