Scala Cinema

Cinema. Built in 1913 by John Parsons and Sons of Bulwell, and constructed by Pegg and Bailey of Derby. The terracotta-painted front block was created by Hathern. The roof is Welsh slate, with a single boiler chimney to the west. The building comprises a tall, rectangular hall with a short gallery, alongside smaller ancillary structures to the west and a projecting foyer area at the front.

The frontispiece is in an Edwardian Classical style, with a utilitarian brick range behind. It features a tripartite composition with a gabled centre bay flanked by canted bays. The front displays banded rustication. The central bay is dominated by a large semi-circular headed arch supported on Ionic columns, with an entablature and dentil cornice extending across the canted bays and return walls. The arch has a stepped keystone featuring a swag and cartouche of a female figure in its apex. The canted bays incorporate two-light square section mullion windows on each face, with a swagged panel positioned beneath the sill on the main face. A tall attic/parapet is present, punctuated by a moulded stringcourse. Within the entrance arch is a recessed half-domed porch, continuing the entablature and cornice, and with applied decorative panels.

The auditorium body is of stock brick, windowless, with east and west elevations broken up by recessed brick panels. An east-side timber queuing canopy is supported on wrought-iron brackets. A northern exit door is set within a painted stone surround. A projecting sound box to the rear indicates the cinema’s original status as a silent cinema, without a stage area for the circa-1930 speaker equipment.

The panelled foyer extends the full width of the entrance, with an office in the canted bay to the right and a dog-leg staircase with an iron barley-sugar balustrade in the left canted bay. A later central paybox, probably dating to the late 1930s, is accompanied by contemporary double entrance doors in wood veneer with chrome handles. The auditorium features seven bays, with a one-and-a-half bay balcony at the rear. The original proscenium, complete with a pediment, is now set behind a later free-standing screen. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is punctuated by circular ventilation grilles and ribs with moulded fruit decoration, which extend to the side walls as pilasters with Ionic capitals embellished with cherub heads. Plasterwork in the form of panels is set between the pilasters, all under a continuous heavy modillion cornice. The gallery front is elaborately decorated with flowing cartouche mouldings. Original gas lighting survives at the rear of the hall, and original seating remains in the front two-thirds of the stalls.