RIO CINEMA

RIO CINEMA, KINGSLAND HIGH STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1244939
Date first listed:: 01-Feb-1999
List Entry Name:: RIO CINEMA
Statutory Address:: RIO CINEMA, KINGSLAND HIGH STREET

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Date:: 2006-03-05
Reference:: IOE01/15125/02
Rights:: © Mr David Smith. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1244939
Date first listed:: 01-Feb-1999
List Entry Name:: RIO CINEMA
Statutory Address 1:: RIO CINEMA, KINGSLAND HIGH STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: RIO CINEMA, KINGSLAND HIGH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Hackney (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 33519 85170

Details

TQ 3385 735/18/10079

KINGSLAND HIGH STREET (West side), Rio Cinema

II

Alternatively known as: Kingsland Empire, KINGSLAND HIGH STREET, Hackney Cinema. 1937 by F E Bromige, within the shell of an earlier cinema of 1913-15 by George Coles of Adam and Coles. Rendered brick and concrete, nearly flat roof behind high parapets. Circular foyer on corner of site with manager's office over and cafe to side; behind these a single auditorium in Art Deco style with screen and single circle reached via stair to circle foyer. Above this, accessed from the roof, the ceiling and upper walls survive of Coles's earlier auditorium, in strikingly theatrical still Edwardian idiom. Plan rendered facade with ribbed moulding in concave front behind drum of foyer, arch on Kingsland Road front formerly held name CLASSIC' cinema. Parapet was reduced in 1944. The chief interest of this building lies in its complete auditorium of 1937 behind remodelled and extended foyer. Simple, curved mouldings to walls and ceiling, which sweeps down like a cash register to unmoulded proscenium opening. Vertical grilles over screen and at sides over emergency exits. Cut-back pyramidal moulding, originally perhaps a laylight, under circle. Some original light fillings survive at sides and in upper foyer. F E Bromige achieved a remarkable sense of rhythm and movement through simple means in his few cinemas, all in North London, and he has emerged as a specialist cinema architect of rare originality. But there is the added interest also of the remains of the earlier cinema above. In the void over the auditorium, the rafters of Coles's circular auditorium ceiling and moulded plaster decoration with panels, pilasters, swags and timber cornices. This is an exceptionally rare survival, suggesting that the original Kingsland Empire was more theatrical in planning and decoration than most cinemas of that date. Many cinemas were remodelled with the arrival of sound films in the 1930s; nowhere else are two very different auditoria found one within the other. Sources GLRO Modem Records File AP,/BP, 07/0187 and AP,/BP,/19/0187 Ideal Kinema 10 February 1938

Listing NGR: TQ3351985170

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 472823
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
'Ideal Kinema' in 10 February, (1938)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.