Abc Cinema

The ABC Cinema is a cinema dating from 1938, designed by W R Glen for ABC Cinemas and originally named the Regal Cinema. It was renamed ABC in 1960 and briefly known as Cannon cinema in the 1990s. The building is constructed with a steel frame clad in brick, with decorative faience tiling to the front. The auditorium includes a small stage behind the proscenium arch and a single balcony accessed from a large foyer. The auditorium was sub-divided into three spaces in 1977.

The facade is curved brick, with a projecting curved faience centrepiece that is a rare example of a film display board incorporated into the design. The original name "REGAL" was displayed over a fine frieze of square motifs. A brick banded cornice sits above a high parapet. A short staircase tower to the right provides a counterpoise to the double-curved composition. Brick staircase windows are set on a curve, featuring horizontal metal panes and a faience motif at the top. The outer doors have been renewed, and the canopy raised, in keeping with the overall design. Modern signage is in a 1950s style. The remaining elevations are of well-made brown brick, with windows to rear offices and dressing rooms featuring rectangular-paned metal windows. The rear includes a boiler chimney but no fly tower.

The foyer is a particularly handsome design, unrivalled within ABC cinemas and rare in the work of cinema architects of this date. It is double-height, with dog-leg stairs leading through an arch of elliptical columns to a landing and upper foyer. The balustrade features Art Deco metalwork, as do the radiator guards. The ceiling is stepped, with cornice and frieze, and there is coving in the ceiling and over original inner doors on the landing, with a similar pattern underneath the balcony and incorporating planters. Original inner doors remain at ground-floor level. On the landing are two classically-inspired roundels, and an original bevelled mirror. Inner vestibules feature decorated ceilings. The former balcony is now the principal screen, with a modern inserted proscenium arch. It retains decorative ironwork balustrading at the entrance, fluted pilasters with niches in side walls, a fluted cornice, and grillework and coved insets to the ceiling. Similar details are present on the ceilings of Screens 2 and 3. While the original proscenium survives in a dark void behind these screens, with stencil decoration overhead and blocked plaster grilles to either side, the fluted proscenium surrounds and cornicing create a convincing composition.

The ABC circuit was the most extensive in Britain in the 1930s, but few examples remain in reasonable condition. This cinema is a particularly striking survival, notable for the quality of its facade and the survival of the double-height foyer in an almost unaltered state.