The Academy

Cinema, now a Concert Hall, built in 1929 by Edward Stone and T.R. Somerford. The building is constructed with a steel frame and is clad in cream and green faience. Its plan incorporates a double-height auditorium with a balcony, accessed via a two-storey hall from a single-storey entrance foyer on a corner site. The two-storey front elevation features moulded faience panels and a parapet, dominated by a copper half-dome over the entrance foyer and double doors.

The interior is distinguished by a very fine entrance foyer with banded square columns and bold terrazzo flooring on the ground floor, complemented by fluted columns and pilasters on the first floor, framing an octagonal well with an Art Deco metal balustrade to the balcony and a double staircase. The channelled rustication of the ground floor walling contrasts with decorative plaster panels framed by fluted pilasters on the first floor. Original light fittings remain, alongside a coffered ceiling with decorative glazing to square and octagonal skylights. The auditorium was designed as an ‘atmospheric’ cinema, intended to evoke an Italian Renaissance garden, featuring monumental Renaissance-style architecture around the proscenium and along the side walls. Towers flanking a miniature loggia, based on the Rialto Bridge, extend across the proscenium arch. These towers are fronted by balconies set on Composite half-columns, framing statues and a central round-arched niche. Further domes, pilastered walls, balustrades, pediments, statues, and artificial trees contribute to the decorative scheme, extending along the remainder of the side walls. Decorative plasterwork adorns the front of the circle balcony. The building is recognized as one of the best surviving examples of an atmospheric cinema in Britain.

Originally named the Astoria Cinema, the entrance features a half-domed portico. The interior simulates a Mediterranean scene, incorporating a loggia with four pairs of Corinthian columns and a balustrade above, beyond which is a street scene depicting an archway, pavilion, statue, and small house. An imitation corridor of round-headed arches is positioned above the proscenium arch.