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Former Angel Cinema

Former Angel Cinema, 7, Islington High Street, Islington, London, N1 9LQ

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1279639
Date first listed:: 31-Jan-1991
List Entry Name:: Former Angel Cinema
Statutory Address:: Former Angel Cinema, 7, Islington High Street, Islington, London, N1 9LQ

User submitted image — Uploaded by Laura Toal This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Date:: 2000-07-18
Reference:: IOE01/02801/07
Rights:: © Peter Fuller. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1279639
Date first listed:: 31-Jan-1991
List Entry Name:: Former Angel Cinema
Statutory Address 1:: Former Angel Cinema, 7, Islington High Street, Islington, London, N1 9LQ

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:: Former Angel Cinema, 7, Islington High Street, Islington, London, N1 9LQ

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Islington (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 31425 83185

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 5 October 2021 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ3164SW 635-1/64/524

ISLINGTON ISLINGTON HIGH STREET (West side) No.7 (Former Angel Cinema)

31/01/91

GV II

Campanile-type tower of former purpose-built cinema (Angel Picture Theatre). 1913; remainder of cinema demolished c. 1973. By H. Courtenay Constantine for Social Service Educative Entertainment Co. Ltd., patron.

Stone and brick rendered in plaster and stucco; copper roof to dome and lantern, other roofs obscured. Main foyer entrance originally in White Lion Street; the Islington High Street entrance at the base of tower contained grand entrance for circle seats only. (Large auditorium was at right angles to High Street). Edwardian Mannerist classical style. Tower is 100 feet high; composed of three stages, one bay in width, surmounted by drum and dome with small lantern. Ground-floor stage with full-height round-arched architraved entrance with console-bracketed keystone and half-column and half-pier jambs; door and glazing removed from entrance and partially replaced by temporary hoarding; Corinthian pilasters flank entrance and support entablature to ground-floor stage. First-floor stage lined as ashlar: empty round-headed niche (small C20 sash inserted to centre) with half-columns supporting segmental pediment and flanked by banded rustication up to entablature and pediment. Bull's eye window flanked by foliated relief decoration to centre of tympanum. At third stage tower rises dramatically above skyline with four faces: each with sash window to centre, above that a heavy entablature which springs up over a bull's eye window; banded rustication to corners. The whole is topped by arcaded octagonal drum, pedimented on alternate faces, a copper dome with bull's eyes to each face and a small lantern.

INTERIOR: : little original interior fabric survives although some plaster work and classical detail is indicated on the ground-floor level; the splendid stained glass windows and entrance doors have been removed. Rear ground-floor is totally open to the weather; a portion of the roof has also been removed.

This tower is all that remains of the 1,463 seat Angel cinema. It opened in March 1913. Its name was subsequently shortened to 'Angel'; in 1929 it was one of two cinemas to first bring 'talkies' to Islington. (Constantine also designed the Scala cinema in King's Cross, 1920). This building makes an important contribution to the townscape, notably in conjunction with the former Angel pub at no. 1 Islington High Street (q.v.) it forms the 'gateway to Islington'. Islington was one of the earliest centres of moving picture entertainment in Britain. The tower is a striking remnant of the most luxurious cinema built in Islington during this period, when it was thought to be 'the aristocrat of local cinemas'.

(Draper, Chris: Islington's Cinemas and Film Studios: Islington: 1989-: 54-56;

Historians File, English Heritage, London Division: 1990-).

Listing NGR: TQ3142583185

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 369038
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Draper, C, Islington's Cinemas and Film Studios, (1989), 54-56

Legal

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