Former Futurist Cinema

Former Futurist Cinema

A cinema designed by Arthur Stockwell in 1919, subsequently altered in the late 20th century and early 21st century.

The building is constructed of brick with stone and terracotta dressings and a stuccoed ground floor. The principal façade faces John Bright Street, with the cinema's screen forming a rectangular range to the rear (east).

The exterior displays a classical design. The principal elevation is two storeys tall with an Ionic arcade over the first floor, featuring a balcony with squat stone balusters and capitals adorned with splayed volutes and carved swags of fruit. The ground floor is rusticated with rusticated piers dividing seven bays. The three central bays on the ground floor are open and formed the original principal entrance. A secondary entrance lies to the north within an original opening, with a slim six-light window immediately to the south featuring original glazing. Two further bays to the south of the principal entrance have been fitted with modern glazing and early 21st-century metal roller shutters. Transom lights with eight panes sit immediately above the ground floor, repeating above the north two bays. The five southern bays have modern facias applied beneath the projecting cornice between ground and first floors. At first-floor level, either side of the arcade, each bay contains a window with surround, cornice and keystone supporting a moulded pediment. The two bays to the north and south are framed by rusticated stone quoins with carved scroll details at base and top. Above these pairs of windows is a central oculus window, both currently boarded up. A large projecting cornice with dentil detailing runs above the first floor, beneath a stone parapet with anthemion finials. The parapet is solid except over the entrance bays, which feature the same stone balusters as the arcade below.

The rear (east) elevation is tall with a gable end fronting Hill Street. Stone cornices sit above the ground and first floors, with the first-floor cornice displaying dentil detailing. Recessed brick panels with terracotta borders appear at first-floor and roof level, with additional recessed panels and a string course at ground floor between rusticated piers matching the principal façade. Large entrances at both north and south ends feature semi-circular arches with exaggerated keystones and circular plaques with moulded edges and swag detail (the centre of which has been altered). Both entrances originally had double doors, now replaced with early 21st-century metal roller shutters.

A mid-20th-century single-storey extension extends to the north of the cinema on the east elevation, replacing an earlier covered passageway and stepped back from the main façade with matching details. Rusticated piers divide two bays on the ground floor with a concrete plat band between ground and first floors. First-floor level has two windows with concrete sills; above is a brick parapet.

The north elevation is partially visible. The section at John Bright Street matches the principal façade's rusticated, rendered ground floor and brick first floor, with two boarded-up window openings between rusticated piers. A single window opening at the centre features surround and pediment matching those on John Bright Street. Rusticated quoins and a dentilled cornice continue across this elevation, with the stone parapet framed by acanthus pinnacles. To the east, the building continues in plainer style as a three-storey section with window openings on each floor (the first-floor window now obscured by an early 21st-century building). This section also displays a moulded cornice at roof level. The cinema's screen forms a tall brick building to the rear with few openings, though two circular window openings appear at the east end.

To the south, the building is adjoined by another structure on both John Bright Street and Hill Street.

The interior entrance on John Bright Street features predominantly early 21st-century fittings and finishes. Areas of decorative plaster cornicing survive on the first-floor tea rooms and within the cinema's screen to the rear. The screen also retains pilasters and contains an inserted modern gallery and balustrade.