The National Club

The National Club, formerly The Grange Cinema, is a building of group value constructed in 1914 by Edward A Stone. It occupies an island site on Kilburn High Road. The building is stuccoed to the ground floor, with red and plum coloured brick returns and rear. It has a slate mansard roof with terracotta cresting, a green copper dome surmounted by a lantern with a cupola above the entrance bays.

The building has a rectangular plan with eight bays facing the main road, plus a three-bay canted corner containing the main entrance on the right. The ground floor has several doorways. The first floor has an entablature with a projecting cornice. The first floor entrance bays feature round-arched windows with margin glazing, stained glass, and keystones, flanked by channelled pilasters supporting a projecting cornice and a parapet with recessed panels. A symmetrical facade to the main road contains five five-light windows with patterned glazing bars and stained glass, flanked by channelled pilasters supporting a parapet. The central bay slightly projects, featuring a stepped pediment with an enriched plaque inscribed "The Grange”. Each end bay includes a shallow round-arched niche containing a blind rectangular panel and a panel inscribed "The Grange Cinema”, with a keystone and a stepped pediment with festoons.

The return to the right is of plum coloured brick with red brick quoins and six pilasters rising through the first and second floors to support a red brick entablature at the third floor level. A central attic of four pilasters with a pediment is flanked by a parapet. The rear and left hand return are in a similar style, but plainer.

The interior features a dramatic, double-height, top-lit foyer with Adam style enrichment. Ionic columns support an oval balustrade to the first floor, lit by stained glass windows and mirrors, flanked by enriched pilasters carrying ribs to a central oval blind lantern. The first floor, accessed by a wide stair, contains ornate panelling, plasterwork, and some 1930s light fittings to the circulation areas. A massive auditorium has a U-shaped balcony on enriched pillars, creating an enriched plaster arcade to the ground floor. The coved ceiling has enriched, panelled plasterwork with intricate detailing on beams and circular air vents. Balconies are arcaded on either side. The proscenium arch was widened in 1927 by MK Matthews and is flanked by large enriched pilasters. The seating has been removed, and the side balconies are partly masked by bar partitioning.

Designed to seat 2,310 people, The Grange was the largest cinema in Europe when constructed, and is one of the few surviving examples indicating a shift in cinema design away from theatre planning.