Ritz Cinema

Ritz Cinema, Nuneaton

A cinema dating from 1937, designed in the Moderne style by the renowned architects Verity and Beverley for the Union Cinema Circuit. The building was opened on 23 July 1937 and continued in use as a cinema until its closure on 18 June 1984, when it was taken over by Gala Bingo and reopened as a bingo hall. The bingo hall closed in January 2008.

The building is constructed from pinkish-red brick with concrete dressings. The windows are metal-framed Crittall-type examples. On plan, the building is a simple rectangle with a curved corner at the junction of the Roanne Ringway and Abbey Street, which houses the entrance.

The exterior is a stylish and streamlined Moderne composition on a corner plot. A central curved section sits on the corner, breaking upwards above the height of the flanking ranges. The building has a high ground floor and three further storeys, topped by a brick parapet. Strong horizontal emphasis is created by concrete floor rafts which form plat bands running around the entire structure. The curved corner section has three openings at ground floor level, each housing double doors, above which runs a cantilevered quadrangular canopy. Single windows on two levels flank the applied sign reading GALA BINGO CLUBS. Brick pilasters define the break between the curved corner section and the return ranges. The northern elevation, comprising eight bays, is articulated by regularly spaced brick pilasters running from ground level to parapet. The Abbey Street return is shorter, with metal-framed windows similar to those in the corner section, together with a small projecting balcony with decorative railings at second floor level.

The interior is a confection of plaster and metalwork featuring an impressive, highly-coloured decorative scheme incorporating Art Deco, Neo-Egyptian and Chinoiserie-inspired motifs. The foyer has a deeply coffered ceiling with recessed polygonal panels, square columns with foliate capitals and gilding; the original heavy multi-panelled doors remain. The wide staircases have elegant iron balustrades with curved and geometric motifs. The auditorium, which retains a balcony to the rear, has a deeply coffered ceiling with original ceiling lights and a highly decorative scheme featuring fluted columns, moulded curving cornices and extensive moulded and fluted elements to the proscenium and ante-proscenium. Large gilt fretwork panels with lotus leaf motifs and a wealth of painted decoration are throughout. The building contains a large foyer and grand staircases leading to a single undivided auditorium with a stage and proscenium arch remaining in situ.

The cinema was one of a series of Union Cinema buildings recognised for their lavish investment in high-quality cinema architecture, with particularly impressive decorative interiors, very few of which now survive. By October 1937, Union Cinemas had become financially overstretched and soon afterwards went bankrupt, with the circuit's cinemas taken over by Associated British Cinemas. The building became a Ritz by the 1960s. The building remains in all essential respects as originally constructed, without major alterations. Unusually, the auditorium remains intact without later subdivisions, and the extensive and high-quality interior scheme remains almost entirely intact throughout the foyer, staircases, auditorium, stage, ante-proscenium and proscenium.