Cinema De Luxe

The Cinema de Luxe, also known as the Plaza, was built in 1914-15 and altered in 1936. Designed by Peter Dulvey Stonham, it is a brick and steel structure with slate roofs, featuring plaster rendering to the High Street facade and a Grosvenor Hill return wall, and a painted brick rear extension.

The building is two storeys and displays a subdued Baroque style. The High Street facade is dominated by a monumental, centrally positioned double-height arch with channeled, rusticated jambs and a keystone cartouche. A frieze, defined by shallow triple plaster string mouldings, runs above the main block, topped by a rich entablature including a dentil cornice and pulvinated frieze. A wide tablet with scrolls and guttae is positioned above the entrance arch. The ends of the front have chamfers, with the upper storey corbelled out on elaborate mouldings, above which are two sets of small twin windows. A plaster-panelled emergency doorway is visible on the left return wall. The rear walls are of stock brick. The entrance arch contains two sets of double doors, above which is a frieze, leading to an area of square-pane glazing surmounted by a large circular window with a deep hood moulding, flanked by miniature pilasters and volutes.

Inside, a small foyer leads to a double-height auditorium. The neo-Baroque plasterwork ceiling is arranged in fields with lattice roundels, disguising ventilation extracts, and supported by double consoles where it meets the side walls. The furthest ceiling panel slopes towards the proscenium. The balcony has a serpentine, shaped front with a key-pattern fret along the lower edge. A continuous fibrous plaster cove, formed to appear streamlined, runs from the balcony along the side walls to the proscenium, which is flanked by vertical flutings in fibrous plaster. Late twentieth-century fielded panelling is on the side walls. The balcony has since been converted to office space, but the original dome and rich plasterwork mouldings remain above false ceilings.

The Cinema de Luxe is a well-preserved example of an architecturally refined early cinema, notable for its original features and the 1936 streamlined alterations. Its facade is particularly fine for the period. Stonham was a significant local architect, also responsible for the listed Torbay Cinema in Paignton. The building ceased operating as a cinema in 1987.