The Ipswich Regent Theatre

The Ipswich Regent Theatre

This theatre was constructed in 1928–9 as the Regent cine-variety theatre to a design by William Edward Trent, chief architect to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres. The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings, some painted, with rear elevations and the former manager's house also in brick with tiled roofs.

Exterior

The principal facade facing St Helen's Street is neo-Georgian in style and comprises two storeys. A wide portal with steps leads to the entrance, flanked by walls of painted stone cladding with channelled surfaces and rusticated plinths, surmounted by a canopy. The upper storey is symmetrically arranged in five main bays, with an additional bay on the left marking a separate front stalls entrance. The three central windows and the additional left-hand window have jambs formed as brick quoins, while the two remaining windows are framed in stone. A fluted stone frieze carries the inscription THE REGENT above the central window, with swag festoons above the others except for the extra left-hand bay. Hood moulding spans the middle three bays with a modillioned soffit and miniature festoons along the edge. Above this section is a hipped tile roof, with the outer bays rising to parapets crowned by four finials in the form of stylized funerary urns. The left-hand return wall features an original advertising frame bearing the PCT monogram on each corner. The former manager's house, a rarity in cinema architecture, is attached to the rear of the building.

Interior

The entrance consists of four sets of double doors flanked by original stained timber revolving doors, an unusual feature in cinemas. A spacious entrance foyer is lit by original partly glazed double doors leading to the inner foyer, which features fine Art Deco style chrome-plated brass door furniture. Fireplaces in the foyer are now concealed by partitioning. Stairs on the right of the entrance foyer ascend to the balcony.

The curving inner foyer or crush hall contains sets of double doors to the auditorium main floor, with those at the extreme ends being original, and steps leading to single doors opening to fourteen boxes—another unusual feature in cinema design. A festoon frieze runs at cornice level, though parts are obscured by a false ceiling concealing the original coffered ceiling. Doors in the left-hand return wall lead to the former front stalls lobby, which retains an original, though now blocked, paybox—a further unusual survival.

The large fan-shaped auditorium is executed in a simplified classical style with a line of boxes beneath the shallow balcony soffit. Fluted curving splays flank the proscenium, which originally incorporated changing colour illumination in the outer coving. The stage is 11.4 metres deep and has a fly tower. Coffering ornaments the ante-proscenium arch. Horizontal banding runs across the dados of the flank walls. Continuous horizontal mouldings on the balcony front extend forward to meet the ante-proscenium, creating a string course. Above this string course, the walls are arranged in six bays on each side, divided by plain pilasters with recessed stage sides to accommodate lighting. The panels in the bays have fluted surfaces, possibly serving acoustic purposes. An octagon in the ceiling accommodates rooms for film projection and spotlights. Scrolling decoration ornaments the ceiling surrounding the octagon and within it. The octagon rises to form a dome treated with textured acoustic paint. From the centre hangs a timber and plaster octagonal triple-stage lighting fixture directing light upward to the dome. The balcony entrance is accessed from the rear wall rather than through a vomitory. Where the coved cornice meets the rear wall, it is formed into scallops. Original steel handrails line the side walls at balcony level.

The staircase from the entrance foyer to the balcony comprises four flights. From the second landing, which has a rectangular skylight of geometrical design, a small ante-room leads to the former restaurant positioned above the entrance foyer. The ante-room features a radiator shield and stair balustrade in stylized neo-classical form. The former restaurant has a coved plaster ceiling with a scalloped central section. Twin double doors at the top stair landing lead to the rear balcony, fitted with high-quality door furniture.

The interior of the former manager's house is simple and utilitarian, with late twentieth-century alterations.

Historical and Technical Significance

The building exemplifies late 1920s cine-variety theatre design by Trent for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres. It preserves features unusual in cinemas, including the line of boxes at main floor level—likely derived from Matcham's London Coliseum of 1904—the separate front stalls entrance (a survival of the segregated entrances found in Victorian and Edwardian theatres and music halls), the manager's house, and the revolving entrance doors. The interior features exceptional Art Deco door furniture and preserved architectural embellishments. The lighting fixture suspended from the dome is of particular note, possibly representing one of the earliest surviving manifestations of design derived from German Expressionism in an English cinema, comparable to the contemporaneous New Victoria in London designed by Ernest Wamsley Lewis (now the Apollo Victoria, listed Grade II*), which incorporated similar stalactite light fittings. The Regent auditorium was among the first specifically designed for sound film, incorporating sound absorbent and reflective concepts such as the fluted baffle panels and the textured dome surface. The building operated as an Odeon cinema until 1991, subsequently reopening as a live theatre.