Regal Cinema

The Regal Cinema, built in 1932 to designs by Hurley Robinson, incorporates two shops at ground-floor level. It is a steel-framed building clad in brick with artificial Guildstone bands and decorations, some of which are now painted. The building has a rectangular plan, featuring a double-height auditorium with a single balcony, set behind a street-front of offices. A circular corner entrance provides access.

The main street frontage is framed in stonework and features a prominent cornice that rises and becomes fluted over the corner entrance. This is flanked by piers with fluted pennants, and similar pendentives to the architraves surrounding the windows. The windows are metal with margin lights, although those above the ground floor appear to be later insertions. The corner entrance is flanked by reeded columns with lotus leaf tops, supporting a coffered soffit, and is accessed via terrazzo steps. Ground-floor shopfronts are obscured by grilles. Original paired double doors feature a fleche motif in the toplight glazing, with a paybox to the right upon entry. The coffering extends into the lower foyer.

The two-level foyer is served by a staircase with terrazzo treads and an elaborate moderne steel balustrade in two colours, incorporating a timber handrail that curves to the upper gallery. Paired timber doors with chrome handles lead to the auditoria.

The original auditorium is now subdivided, but the circle and front stalls remain as a single space, with the screen served by original projection portals. The ceiling features a segmental arched roof with fibrous plaster Art Deco motifs and banding. Historic octagonal lightfittings remain, along with wall sconces; previously concealed decoration also existed in the ceiling. Moulding runs along the side wall and continues around the proscenium end. A broad, fluted proscenium is present, with ventilation grilles on either side within architrave surrounds containing sunburst tops. Fluting and Art Deco moulding adorn the balcony front. The building lacks a fly tower, with the area beneath the balcony being relatively plain.

Hurley Robinson was a significant architect based in the West Midlands, known for combining classical and moderne styles. The Regal Cinema is a rare survival, considered his most architecturally significant work, and was built as an independent cinema, surviving with remarkably few alterations.