[Former] Empress Cinema - Hoe Street, London, UK
N 51° 34.554 W 000° 00.864
30U E 706873 N 5718094
The Empress cinema was purpose built in 1913 and continued as a cinema until 1963 when it became a bingo hall. The cinema was designed to accomodate 830 patrons but that was increased to 1000.
Waymark Code: WM124ZM
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/29/2020
Views: 0
The Brind website has an article about the Empress cinema that tells us:
Erected in 1913 by Messrs Good Brothers, a well known builders and builders merchants who were impressarios for a few years.
Good Brothers ran four cinemas in the Walthamstow and Leyton area (the Empire, the Queens, the Arcadia and the Empress).
It was shut for about two decades until it was taken over by the Kingsway International Christian Centre, who budgeted £2.2m to refurbish it for use as a church. According to the architect, Paul Henry, far more than this was actually spent because the building was seriously damaged by a fire that spread from an adjoining premises. The cinema was Grade II listed partly as a result of the elaborate plasterwork on the walls. Mr Henry's team had made an exact copy of this plasterwork prior to the fire so were able to restore it. Kingsway International Christian Centre was investigated by the Charities Commission who issued a report in October 2005 that said there had been serious misconduct and mismanagement. The cinema was originally designed to accommodate 830 but Kingsway increased the seating capacity to 1,000. It closed as a cinema in January 1963 and was then used as a bingo hall for several years. Kingsway acquired it in October 2001 and the refurbished building was opened on August 12, 2007. It remains listed though very little of the original is still in place.
As mentioned, the building is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
Cinema. 1913, architect unknown, for Messrs Good Brothers, impressarios.
Brick, with rendered facade incorporating stone decorations. Low foyer parallel with shops on street, with behind it a double-height auditorium at slight angle to street. Main facade a tripartite composition with higher central section, having a raised parapet supported on four Ionic columns over a projecting balcony. Behind this windows (boarded up at time of inspection) to projection box. Rest of upper facade blind, with lower parapet and an Ionic pilaster at each end. Dentiled string course and band to lower facade, with windows either side of paired double doors.
Interior. Auditorium of double height with shallow balcony at rear. Barrel-vaulted roof and side walls with rich plaster decoration in panels, the side walls with pilasters incorporating rosettes and swags. Deep moulded cornice and frieze continued right round the auditorium. Cyma curved balcony front ending in projecting circular ends originally treated as boxes. Proscenium partially hidden by later canopy but retains pilasters to sides. Included as an unusually elaborate example of an early cinema, with exceptionally rich surviving plasterwork. The elaboration is especially remarkable for a small cinema in a suburban location.