The Rex Cinema
THE REX CINEMA, WEST 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:
- 1380558
- Date first listed:
- 12-Jul-2000
- List Entry Name:
- The Rex Cinema
- Statutory Address:
- THE REX CINEMA, WEST STREET
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1380558
- Date first listed:
- 12-Jul-2000
- List Entry Name:
- The Rex Cinema
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE REX CINEMA, WEST STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE REX CINEMA, WEST STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Dorset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Wareham Town
- National Grid Reference:
- SY 92233 87349
Details
WAREHAM TOWN
SY9287 WEST STREET
767/2/10002 (North side)
12-JUL-00 The Rex Cinema
GV II
Former Oddfellows' Hall. 1889, remodelled in 1921 as a cinema. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof. Rectangular first-floor hall, entered via stairs set behind ancillary shop, now used as caf', and with commercial premises on the ground floor below cinema.
Elaborate gabled facade, with tiled gable, stone sign and plaque. Arched tripartite Gothic stone windows on first floor now blocked. The ground floor still more elaborate, with double-doored entrance to cinema, central paired timber sash window and door to commercial premises all set in stone surrounds decorated with floreat motifs. To the right, a lower, two-bay frontage of two storeys with attic dormer has timber sashes in moulded foliate surrounds, but is more domestic in character. Timber panelled door at right. The exterior is a prominent and dignified feature in the High Street.
The interior. Tiled entrance hall with original internal doors. Staircase with stone steps, cast-iron balustrade and timber handrail leads to first-floor hall. Landing with top light, which has coloured glass panels. Hall retains original 1889 timber truss roof with wrought-iron tie bars, visible behind screen, and with tie bars visible in rest of hall, into which a coved ceiling was inserted as part of the conversion to cinema use. Panels on walls, and simple unmoulded proscenium.
Included as a good surviving example of an Oddfellows' Hall, with good late C19 decoration. Its conversion to a cinema gives the building added interest.
Listing NGR: SY9223787351
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 480798
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 21-Jun-2026 at 17:53:53.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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