Vogue Cinema, 52 Newry Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4DN

Vogue Cinema, 52 Newry Street, Kilkeel

This is an inter-war cinema built in the late 1930s and opened on 19th April 1940, designed in the streamlined Moderne style by Benjamin Cowser of Cowser and Smyth, Belfast. It is a rare survivor of its type and a characteristic example of modernist cinema design from the period.

The building sits on a sloping site with its south-west-facing façade to the street. It consists of a large auditorium with flat-roofed returns to the left gable and rear, which accommodate the entrance, services, and offices. The main auditorium block has a pitched corrugated asbestos roof with a parapet gutter to the façade and asbestos half-round rainwater goods to the rear. Each verge is concrete-coped, and a dashed chimney rises from the rear pitch of the right gable.

Street Façade

The street elevation presents an asymmetrical composition of interlocking rectangular blocks finished in smooth painted render, with flat parapets, long streamlined horizontal string courses, porthole windows, and horizontal glazing bars to rectangular windows and doors — all hallmarks of the Moderne style.

The entrance block occupies the left (uphill) end of the façade. It rises two storeys with a high parapet and a taller advanced vertical pier at the junction with the auditorium to the right, that pier rising above parapet level. The walls are painted wet dash with a band-rusticated dado below a dado moulding. Both the parapet and the tall pier have plain overhanging concrete copings.

At ground floor level, two pairs of double-leafed entrance doors are accessed by a flight of four brown-tiled steps. These are original painted timber doors, each with five horizontal glazed panes. The left-hand pair retains its original Modernist chrome handles. Above the doors is a projecting canopy with advanced piers to either side. The soffit of this canopy features a diagonally set square grid of raised bands, at the intersections of which are round timber circles each containing four modern light fittings.

At first floor level, a group of three tall painted timber windows is centred over the entrance. Each window has five horizontal panes, with the top panes opening, and horizontal fluted glazing. Each window has an advanced painted concrete cill and is separated by raised concrete mullions — with similar mullions to the left and right of the group — which rise up from the canopy below. The mullions are terminated by a concrete transom, above which is a tall corrugated frieze with a projecting horizontal concrete hood over it.

The wall of the main auditorium is dashed and painted with the same banded dado and dado moulding as the entrance block. As the site slopes down to the right, the height of the dado wall increases until the dado moulding aligns with the head of a door at the extreme right of the elevation. This doorway is set within a small porch, with the flanking walls slightly advanced for visual effect and advanced piers supporting the projecting dado, which forms a hood over the opening. The right cheek of this porch has no openings; the left cheek has a small two-paned fixed timber window with obscured security glazing. There is a similar window on the main wall immediately to the left of the porch.

Above the dado line, at the centre of the auditorium wall, is a smooth rendered billboard panel flanked by similar but narrower panels. Set into the wall above are six blind oculi with concrete architraves. At eaves level, two raised concrete platbands are surmounted by a corrugated frieze forming the parapet, with a projecting concrete coping above.

Gables and Side Elevations

The left gable (at the top of the hill) is largely abutted by the entrance block; the remaining exposed gable wall is dashed with a circular metal vent inset. The right gable carries the same dashed finish as the façade, and the dado moulding, frieze, and other details wrap around the corner before terminating. At ground floor level this gable is abutted by a lean-to addition with a pitched corrugated asbestos roof and dashed walls. This addition has a modern timber and glass door to its left cheek, accessed by a flight of steps from the left at ground level. Its rear wall contains two modern stained timber casements and a modern door at the right end. There is also a lean-to porch with an opening on the right cheek leading into the auditorium.

The left cheek of the entrance block is dashed with a first-floor window detailed in exactly the same manner as those over the entrance canopy, but only two windows wide. The wall above is similarly coped. To the left of this block, the ground floor wall continues with two small two-paned casements at the left end. The first floor steps back at this point, creating a parapet walk between the two levels. On the rear wall of the entrance block, where the first floor steps back, is a small top-hung two-paned casement. The stepped-back first-floor wall has a door to the right and three modern casement windows, each with two panes and a transom over. At the left end of this rear wall, at first floor level, is a further window and door.

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation is dashed and has two tall central windows, each 12-paned in a 2-by-6 arrangement. To the left, the rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey return. To the right of where this return meets the rear wall, the rear wall is slightly advanced — with the return roof advancing to cover it — and contains a narrow horizontal two-paned casement. Abutting the right cheek of this advanced section is a deep porch formed by two dashed walls supporting a concrete canopy; inside is a pair of painted timber escape doors.

The single-storey return has a flat concrete-coped roof. Its windows are 3-by-3-paned timber casements: one to the rear wall, two on the right cheek, and six on the right cheek where it steps slightly out from the end gable of the auditorium.

The rear wall of the ground floor block is flush with the rear wall of the auditorium and is abutted to the right by a recent single-storey return. The remaining wall is dashed with a parapet wall broken by the attachment point for a metal escape ladder. To the left of the ladder is a three-paned casement window. This return has a flat roof, dashed walls, and no windows to the rear wall. Its right cheek is a continuation of the left elevation of the entrance block and has two recessed glazed timber doors and a row of high square modern timber windows, some paired. The left cheek has three similar windows.

The rear elevation of the auditorium has, at mid-level, two 6-over-6 timber sliding sash windows. To the left it is abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed return. Immediately to the right of this is a small flat-roofed entrance porch with modern two-paned glazed doors. This return has a smooth rendered base and modern windows of no particular interest.

Pairs of large metal gates hung from dashed piers close each end of the façade.

Interior

The building retains much of its original Modernist interior detailing and is considered a very characteristic and rare survivor of its type. The cinema was built on a stadium principle, making use of the sloping site so that the seating area descends towards the screen for maximum visibility. It originally contained a stage for live performances. According to the contemporary opening brochure, multi-coloured footlights and batons were installed to allow the silver screen to be illuminated in numerous beautiful hues. Changing rooms were added in the 1970s, and the interior was refurbished in 1998.

Historical Notes

The Vogue Cinema was opened on 19th April 1940 by the Countess Kilmorey. The first feature film shown was Rage of Paris, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The original owners were Messrs McGonagle and McCulla, and cinema fittings were supplied by Messrs Kalee Ltd of 49 Donegall Square, Belfast.

The architect, Benjamin Cowser, was a native of Kilkeel who was apprenticed to the Belfast-based architect Thomas Houston. He established his own practice in Belfast in 1933, with early commissions including Enniskillen Masonic Hall and Portstewart Town Hall. He entered into partnership with Val Smyth in 1936, and the practice of Cowser and Smyth went on to design, among many other buildings, the North Street Arcade and the Boys' Model School, both in Belfast. Cowser retired from practice in the mid-1960s.