The Gate Cinema

The Gate Cinema

A cinema with attached shops on the south side of Notting Hill Gate, opened in 1911 as the Electric Palace. It was converted from a restaurant of 1861 to designs by William Hancock. The foyer and offices above were reconstructed in 1962 by Douton and Hurst as part of a London County Council street widening scheme.

Exterior

The building presents a three-storey faience-clad facade to Notting Hill Gate in stock brick. At ground level, the cinema entrance is positioned to the left with shop units to the right. Above are six vertical metal-framed windows arranged over two floors to the right, each with horizontal top and bottom panes divided by a central dividing pane. A simple concrete cornice tops the facade. A canopy with a raking underside extends along the entire frontage and around the return, with its front edge supporting two film advertising light boxes. The foyer is fully glazed with glass entrance doors featuring bronzed handles shaped like scrolling film.

The 1962 work is marked by the office entrance doors with a glazed curtain-wall stair hall above. The left return and rear walls are in stock brick with gauged brick headers over windows and doorways. The rear corner is angled, with a basement doorway. The two-storey office block at the rear is supported by the cinema auditorium roof.

Interior

The small foyer provides access to the auditorium through a door in the right-hand corner. The long, narrow auditorium extends to the left at a ninety-degree angle, with a raking floor and exceptionally lavish Edwardian baroque plaster decoration.

The side walls are divided into bays by pilasters, each bay containing two panels. A dado with moulded rail serves as the plinth for the pilasters. Each pilaster has a simplified triglyph capital, while each panel is bordered by mouldings with corner ears and scrolling foliage at the top edges. A narrow ornamented cornice runs along the walls.

The ceiling is heavily coffered with ovolo moulding enclosing each square. Bars of abundant plaster fruit demarcate the bays, and each coffer contains a central acanthus roundel. The projection room is located at the rear of the auditorium. The proscenium is obscured by recent drapery surrounding the cinema screen.

The shop interiors are not of special interest. This represents a little-altered early cinema auditorium with unusually fine Edwardian baroque plaster decoration.