Former Elysium Or Gaiety Cinema
FORMER ELYSIUM OR GAIETY CINEMA, 186, SEASIDE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1390538
- Date first listed:
- 28-Jul-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Former Elysium Or Gaiety Cinema
- Statutory Address:
- FORMER ELYSIUM OR GAIETY CINEMA, 186, SEASIDE
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1390538
- Date first listed:
- 28-Jul-2003
- List Entry Name:
- Former Elysium Or Gaiety Cinema
- Statutory Address 1:
- FORMER ELYSIUM OR GAIETY CINEMA, 186, SEASIDE
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:
- FORMER ELYSIUM OR GAIETY CINEMA, 186, SEASIDE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- East Sussex
- District:
- Eastbourne (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TV 61951 99692
Details
623/0/10064 SEASIDE 28-JUL-03 186 Former Elysium or Gaiety Cinema
II
Cinema, later adapted toBingo hall. Dated 1914 on gable. Brick, with some iron columns, hipped tiled roof to front. Long narrow auditorium behind narrow foyer, with small rear gallery. EXTERIOR: Queen Anne style front stuccoed with centrepiece set forward under gable, flanked by paired pilasters, and with dentilled cornice and gable surround. Central paired windows under gable, single windows in flanks, all set within decorated architrave surrounds. These are wooden multipaned sashes. Ground floor has central paired doors and one side door to left, probably of late 1960s or early 1970s; shop fronts in between boarded over at time of survey. Blocked window to left hand side visible internally. Canopy has chrome edgine and may retain an earlier canopy underneath. INTERIOR: Narrow foyer with coved cornice to front and egg and dart moulded cornice and three plaster panels with corner paterae behind. Staircase retains original corner column. Raked auditorium has arcade to either side. Between its shallow openings are set pilasters, terminating in swags and shell capitals. Barrel-vaulted ceiling, with moulded ribs and circular ventilation holes. Proscenium arch is large plastered Caerarvon arch and brick rear wall, to which the screen was probably directly fixed before sound, is visible. Staircase leads to first floor offices and toilets at the front, a narrow corridor with egg and dart cornice and the Gallery. Gallery retains a circular egg and dart moulding,probably for a light fitting, moulded cornice with two side doorcases with chamfered pilasters and the balustrading is very thick suggesting the possibility of earlier balustrading surviving behind.There is a separate staircase from the Gallery to the south. HISTORY: The cinema was built as the Eastbourne Picture Theatre, and became the Elysium Cinema in 1921 and the Gaiety in 1936. Included as an unusually complete example of a pre-1914 cinema, with considerable original plaster decoration.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 490460
- 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 17-Jun-2026 at 00:39:42.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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