Winding Wheel

Winding Wheel

Concert hall, formerly the Picture House cinema, built in 1922–23 by the Chesterfield Picture House Company. The architect was possibly H J Sheppard of Sheffield. A ballroom block was possibly added around 1930. The building is constructed of brick with imitation timber framing and render, with internal steel framing. It comprises a complex plan of two main blocks: a double-height cinema auditorium to the right and a ballroom to the left, both served by foyers and cafes.

The right-hand block contains a centrally placed, recessed ground-floor entrance with side walls painted as ashlar blocks and an acanthus cornice. The upper floor has nine bays, with the middle three bays protruding slightly and featuring a central oriel. All windows are leaded with a central mullion and two transoms. A steeply pitched roof has three central gables, the middle one protruding and cutting into the corners of the two flanking gables.

The left-hand block has five bays with shopfronts in the ground floor centre three bays (featuring Art Deco chevron leading in the upper lights), a carriageway in the left aperture, and an entrance to the former restaurant in the right aperture. The words "RESTAURANT" and a monogram "CPH" appear in the leaded lunette. The upper floor has five bays: an oriel to the left over the carriageway and four windows to the right, all leaded with two mullions and two transoms. Imitation timbering continues on the right return wall of the entrance block; other rear walls are in plain stock brick.

The entrance has doors with subdued neo-classical glazing bars in the frieze lunette. The foyer contains square columns with Ionic capitals and plaster pendants. Stairs to the balcony foyer on the left have baroque balustrades. On the right is a late seventeenth-century style chimneypiece with a grey marble bolection surround and triple-light overmantel mirror, with a cornice featuring acanthus mouldings.

The auditorium is rectangular and double-height. The proscenium comprises a broad inner moulding with acanthus-decorated coffering, a thin moulding of acanthus and square rosettes, and a broad outer fasces moulding bound at intervals by acanthus. In the architrave is a Vitruvian scroll between the two latter mouldings, flanking a horizontal panel depicting an Arcadian scene of dancing female figures, fauns and the god Pan entwined with garlands. The first bays of the ante-proscenium are double height; the remainder of the side wall bays are in two storeys divided by an entablature to the balcony front. The upper level is divided by enriched pilasters and composite capitals incorporating masks; the lower level has pilasters of leaf and tongue enrichment. A garland cornice runs around, with a curving and fluted balcony front. The shallow barrel ceiling is in two sections, with the section over the four bays nearest the proscenium being lower. The entire ceiling is partitioned into fields by garland dentil mouldings, with roundels and rectangular laylights of leaded glazing. The balcony is arranged in two areas separated by two plain timber barriers and entered through two side vomitories with timber panelled walls. It is supported by square columns with plain Tuscan capitals, the soffit featuring roundels of leaded glazing surrounded by sunbursts.

The balcony cross-over foyer has a barrel ceiling with a cornice enriched with mouldings of fruit, fleur-de-lys, birds, wheatsheaves and strapwork. A riveted plate is visible in the wall of the emergency exit stairs. The former restaurant on the first floor has pilasters and cornices matching the foyer below, with a late seventeenth-century style stone bolection moulded chimneypiece. Timber balustraded stairs to the ballroom have a turned finial to the newel post. The ballroom is large and almost square, with galleries at both ends and a central oval dome of leaded panes. Timber dado panelling and plaster enrichments on ceiling beams are present. In a recess opposite the entrance end are timber stairs to a gallery. A rear service passage with windows of complex vernacular style leads from the ballroom.

The building is included as a rare and elaborate 1920s cinema complex whose decoration remains largely unaltered both externally and internally, despite its adaptation to new uses.