Mgm Cinema

The MGM Cinema is a Grade II listed building located on Magdalen Street in Oxford. Built between 1922 and 1924 by Frank Matcham and Company, along with J C Leeds, the cinema features a brick construction with a rendered front and partially visible slate and asphalt roofs. The narrow two-bay facade rises three storeys above the entrance vestibule, which leads to a wider foyer that includes a disused first-floor café and an auditorium with a single shallow balcony.

The facade showcases an early 20th-century pattern of windows and decorative pilasters, although it may conceal mid-19th century elements behind it. Inside, the building retains a staircase above the first floor, along with cornices, cupboards, and fireplaces that reflect a late 19th or early 20th-century style. The foyer features original panelling and moulded plaster ceilings, which are now covered by late 20th-century cladding and a false ceiling.

The staircase, adorned with an iron balustrade, leads to the café, which is decorated with moulded plaster. The auditorium is a double-height space with a barrel vault, a moulded proscenium arch, and a shallow rear balcony. A heavy modillion cornice encircles the hall, which is embellished with round-arched niches on either side of the balcony and proscenium. The walls are adorned with murals from 1924 by G Rushton, depicting 'Modern Sport' and 'Early Learning', although these are currently hidden behind curtains for acoustic reasons. Two of the four gilded urns, an important part of the original design, remain visible above a rusticated dado moulding. The balcony retains its original front, dadoes, and crush rails at the rear, along with a round central panelled vomitory.

The MGM Cinema is noted for being a rare example of a little-altered cinema from the early 1920s, with the added significance of its original mural decoration still in place.