The Duke of Yorks Cinema

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3105SW PRESTON CIRCUS
577-1/27/689 (North East side)
24/11/94 The Duke of York's Cinema

II

Cinema. Opened on 22 September 1910. Designed by CE Clayton
for Mrs Violet Melnotte-Wyatt. Stucco, brick and cobbles in
mortar to the rear, roof of slate.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 3-window range. Single-storey porch to
the centre, one bay deep and 2 wide, in the form of a
Palladian arcade with ornate, typically Edwardian Ionic
columns and cartouches in the place of keystones, the
pilasters decorated with Rococo ornament; dentil cornice;
parapet with openwork panels between piers, central panel with
segmental cornice and urns on piers. 2 flat-arched entrances
with eared architraves, pulvinated frieze and cornice, the
frieze interrupted in a characteristically Edwardian way by a
rectangular panel. The ground floor either side of the porch
is rusticated, with round-arched openings, now glazed as for
shops; the upper part of the facade has a slightly recessed
centre over the porch with 3 flat-arched windows, now blocked,
having architraves and cornices on consoles, and over each a
less than circular window in an oval Rococo frame with
festoons and drops; modillion cornice; parapet with openwork
panels either side of a semicircular pediment on consoles
framing a clock surrounded by a wreath and scrolling foliage;
the side wings are flanked by rusticated pilasters and have,
from the first floor upwards, an oval oculus, aedicule,
consoles with drops carrying a round-arched archivolt,
modillion cornice and parapet; these wings were originally
crowned by domes.
The left-hand return in Stanley Road is detailed like the
front for one bay; then comes the single-storey auditorium
with 2 flat-arched entrances with architraves and 3 blank
windows, the wall divided into 8 bays; the eastern ends shows
cobble and mortar construction in brick panels, said to
survive from the buildings of the Amber Ale Brewery, formerly
on this site.
INTERIOR: vestibule with cornice, and floor paved with tiles
and terrazzo. The auditorium is a single ramped space; the
proscenium arch has a concave architrave decorated with stars;
the side walls are divided into 6-and-a-half bays by Doric
pilasters which support the ribs of the elliptical-arched
ceiling; the rear one-and-a-half bays contain a gallery,
segmental in plan, and cantilevered out from 4 Doric columns.
The auditorium was redecorated in June 1937, but it may be
that only the proscenium arch and the present gallery date
belong to this period of alteration.
HISTORICAL NOTE: most purpose-built cinemas in Britain dating
from before the First World War were built in 1910-1914,
following the Cinematograph Act which came into force on 1
January 1910; The Duke of York's is thus one of the oldest
surviving, and largely unaltered, purpose-built cinemas in
Britain.
(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-).




Listing NGR: TQ3118805471

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

481065

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Carder, T, Encyclopaedia of Brighton, (1990)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.