ABC CINEMA

ABC CINEMA, WARDS END

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1385013
Date first listed:: 05-Oct-2000
List Entry Name:: ABC CINEMA
Statutory Address:: ABC CINEMA, WARDS END

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Date:: 2007-08-10
Reference:: IOE01/16892/09
Rights:: © Mr Nigel Wood. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1385013
Date first listed:: 05-Oct-2000
List Entry Name:: ABC CINEMA
Statutory Address 1:: ABC CINEMA, WARDS END

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:: ABC CINEMA, WARDS END

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

District:: Calderdale (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SE 09292 24968

Details

HALIFAX

679/0/10283 WARD'S END 05-OCT-00 Halifax ABC Cinema

GV II

Also Known As: Regal Cinema, WARD'S END, Halifax

Cinema with integral row of shops to the north facing Alexandra Street. Opened in September 1938 as the Regal for the original ABC company (Associated British Cinemas). Architect: William Riddell Glen, FRIAS, LRIBA (1884-1950).

Thin courses of squared stone with ashlar panels and dressings; roof not visible. Plan a rounded triangle. Moderne style. Two and three storeys 1:3:6 windows to Commercial Street.

EXTERIOR: Entrance has vertical tiles on curved sides framing three pairs of renewed glass doors; fascia projects in two stages. Above, ashlar panel has projecting end fins acting as pilasters with bands in place of capitals; nearly full width projection contains triple lights set in architrave; long fluted aprons to these windows which have horizontal metal glazing bars; small narrow lights flank this group. Roof parapet has central projecting block. To the left of entrance block, a shop has plate glass window below deep fascia in green vitrolite; above, two windows of two lights under deep ashlar frieze and flat coped roof parapet. Behind this the curved wall of the cinema rises to full height and has a single window at third storey level. To right of entrance the ground floor is of rusticated ashlar with deeply recessed openings for two emergency exits and hatches. Above, windows are in two-storey panels, with fluted decoration joining lower and upper windows and with a deep ashlar lintel band; from this a second curve with two lights breaks forward to join the right return. Windows one and two lights with metal horizontal glazing bars. Rendered patching to first floor by the continuation of the broad band of green vitrolite; metal framed two and three light windows to first floor. Right return to Ward's End has canted wall with large blank centre space; either side are window panels with two and four lights. Ground floor level projects as curving wall with symmetrical arrangement of deeply recessed exit door at centre flanked by two sets of single-light paired windows. At extreme right another ashlar panel with five windows with one, two and three lights.

INTERIOR: Foyer has stepped roof panels, and original stair at right. Fan-shaped auditorium has two small cinemas inserted, leaving balcony and original full-height proscenium as third cinema. This has banded flanking walls with fleur de lys finials to shallow pilasters; proscenium arch, with panelled architrave surrounded by an ornate grille, is flanked by curving fluted recesses containing statues (replacements of the originals from the ABC Harrogate, now demolished) on fountain-shaped plinths. Ceiling in subdued Jacobean style with strap decoration and pendants. Some original fine wood doors with rich glass viewing panels survive. Other surviving decoration includes fluted curved coping to balcony foyer. ANALYSIS: Despite subdivision, the auditorium remains a good example of an elaborate William Glen interior where e combined the Moderne with historical styles. Virtually all the cinemas built by Associated British Cinemas in the 1930s have now been drastically altered or demolished, making this one, with much surviving original decoration, a rarity. The unusually bold fortress-like exterior adds to the interest of the building.

SOURCES Allen Eyles, ABC The First Name in Entertainment, Cinema Theatre Association, London 1993, p.p.43,45 & 141; Richard Gray, Cinemas in Britain, Lund Humphries, London 1996, p.138

Listing NGR: SE0929224968

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 485473
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Eyles, A, ABC. The First Name in Entertainment, (1993), 43 45 141
Gray, R, Cinemas in Britain: One Hundred Years of Cinema Architecture, (1996), 138

Legal

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