The Little Theatre And Attached Chandos Buildings

The Little Theatre and attached Chandos Buildings is a theatre, now functioning as a cinema, located within a former town house. It was originally built in 1727 and underwent conversion and enlargement between 1934 and 1935, with the designers remaining unknown. The building is constructed from limestone ashlar and features an asbestos cement roof.

The main entrance block facing St Michael's Place is a three-bay Neo-Georgian structure with channelled rustication on the ground floor. To the left, there is a continuation of neutral masonry that leads to the corner. Behind this, in the Chandos Buildings, is a narrow passageway leading to Westgate Buildings, which includes the surviving town house of interest. This town house is three storeys high and six windows wide, with all windows being replacement sashes. The ground and first floors have nine/nine glazing bars, while the upper floor has six/six glazing bars, with a bead-mould inner edge. The former entrance doorway, which had an architrave and cornice hood, has been replaced with an additional window. The building features a high plinth, a platband above the ground floor, a sill band on the first floor, and a parapet. To the right, there are two bays with similar fenestration, although the ground floor is partly blocked by a later corner building. To the left, there is a single bay with similar features, leading to a 20th-century rebuilding beyond.

The interior was not inspected. The theatre was founded by Consuelo de Reyes and her husband Peter King, and it was converted to cinema use in 1936. Internal alterations took place in 1979, when a second screen was created from the former scene store and lounge. The interior decoration was upgraded in 1989, when the former roof garden theatre was converted to office use. This theatre is one of the earliest surviving repertory cinemas, comparable to the Everyman in Hampstead, with which it was closely associated in its earlier years.