The Ritz Cinema

The Ritz Cinema

A cinema designed in 1935 by Scottish architect John Fairweather working with Thomas Jenkins, then Mayor of Burton. The interior was designed by Annie Orton, a relation of the owner, with decorative plasterwork friezes by George Legg of Bryan's Adamanta. Built of brick on a steel frame by Burton Constructional Engineering Company, with stone dressings, the building originally seated approximately 1,500 and is designed in a Modernist style. The plan comprises a foyer and first floor café at the front with a double-height auditorium to the rear.

Exterior

The entrance elevation faces Guild Street and is symmetrical in composition across four storeys and five bays. The central entrance is approached by three broad stone steps set back from the street, with a canopy above at string course level. The central part of the façade above the canopy projects forward with canted edges. At first floor are five large square windows arranged horizontally within a thick stone frame with nicked corners. These Crittall windows have thin glazing bars providing fifteen panes each in vertical style. At second floor a group of five six-pane square windows is divided by thick stone mullions, with a continuous narrow stone sill. At either end is a separate six-light window. The end bays have rectangular windows of corresponding height with narrow stone sills. A heavy stone cornice incorporates the uppermost storey windows, set into the cornice at regular intervals with horizontal-incised jambs. The cornice and string course continue around the right reveal, which echoes the façade in its design.

To the right is the long auditorium, constructed of concrete frame with brick infill. At the rear, part of the original 1867 façade of St George's Hall remains and forms the rear of the auditorium building. It is loosely Jacobean in design, of three bays and two storeys, built in red brick with blue brick banding. There is a central round-arched doorway to the ground floor with stone drip mould and key stone. At first floor, three sets of round-arched tripartite windows sit above chequerboard brickwork and a decorative banded string course. A stepped brick cornice is present at eaves level; above this the pitched roof of the auditorium is visible with tile-hung gable end. All openings have been bricked in. Early photographs of the hall depict a further storey with shaped gables. The blue brick banding continues to the north reveal, and apart from the upper courses most of this elevation appears to be of 19th-century date. This elevation is partially obscured by adjacent buildings but appears to continue to a large stack with brick banding, just visible from Guild Street.

Interior

The Art Deco decorative scheme remains almost completely intact, though there have been later alterations, particularly to the auditorium. At ground floor the foyer has a terrazzo floor with starburst design and a late 20th-century ticket booth. A small office to one side contains what appears to be an original safe. Stairs to the right lead to the stalls and retain metal geometric Art Deco handrails. At stalls level two small screens have been inserted, effectively sealing this level from the large screen in the auditorium. The supporting columns with Egyptian-style capitals remain, as does the moulded plaster soffit decoration. The auditorium itself retains its decorative scheme in entirety, comprising large geometric light and ventilation fittings on the vaulted ceiling and geometric plasterwork to the side walls and ceiling. To either side of the proscenium, with its original curtains, are skyscraper motif panels, and beyond this on the splay walls are purpose-designed plasterwork friezes signed by George Legg. The frieze to the left depicts a stylised female figure, loosely Egyptian in appearance, to the fore, with a large bird and gazelle-like creature behind. The panel to the right differs in handling, with two more lifelike figures peering at the audience from behind a tree.

At first floor the former café has been divided; the front area has been partitioned to provide small staff rooms, whilst the back is now a bar with a 20th-century counter and seating and polystyrene suspended ceiling. The original supporting columns that ran the length of the café remain between the divisions, as does the decoration to the side walls and door surrounds. Above the suspended ceiling the original cove lighting remains and retains its coloured glass lights. On the second floor are small service rooms with painted brick walls. The third floor houses the projector room, which retains the projectors, switchboard and spool table.

History

The cinema opened on 11 March 1935 as The Ritz, on the site of St George's Hall, built in 1867 and latterly used as a theatre and opera house before closing in 1934. The Ritz was commissioned by Orton and Spooner, a local firm famous in fairground circles for their elaborate wagons and shows. They had expanded into cinema in the early 20th century and owned the Burton Picturedrome Company, operating a number of cinemas in the town.

Fairweather designed numerous cinemas in Scotland, including Green's Playhouse in Glasgow (1927), at the time the largest cinema in Europe, since demolished. He worked mostly for the Green and Kemp families, who like Orton and Spooner had made the transition from fairground cinema shows to permanent venues. Green had connections with Orton and Spooner, which explains the unusual commissioning of a Scottish architect south of the border.

The cinema changed ownership during the second half of the 20th century and underwent a series of name changes. It was subdivided in the late 1970s and was further refurbished in the 1980s, before closing in the late 1990s.