The Grange - Kilburn High Road, London, UK - Vintage Movie Theaters on Waymarking.com

The Grade II Listed Grange Theatre was designed in the Baroque style by Edward A. Stone who also designed the Maida Vale Picture House, Kilburn, and was built for the North Metropolitan Circuit as a Super Cinema, opening on the 30th of July 1914 with the film, 'She Stoops to Conquer,' which was supported by the Keystone Cops, both silent films accompanied by the Grange's own organ, which on opening was a Nicholson & Lord, although this was later replaced by a Wurlitzer. The Theatre was promoted at the time as being Britain's largest purpose built Cinema and boasted a seating capacity of 2,028.

The auditorium was on two levels, Stalls and one Circle, and the Circle was unusual for a Cinema in that it was extended down towards the proscenium on both sides in the form of slips which would have been fine for Theatrical performances but would have been a bad position in which to watch films. The auditorium was entered from a large foyer with an oval galeried rotunda which also had stairs leading to a Tea Room and the Circle. The Theatre was also equipped with a stage for live acts and dressing rooms which were both extended and improved in later years, and in the 1920s the Theatre regularly hosted live Variety shows along with its films.

In 1929 the Grange was bought by Gaumont British Theatres, who would also go on to run the later Kilburn State Cinema nearby. Eventually Rank took over the company and in June 1975 they closed the Grange because there simply wasn't the audience for two huge cinemas in Kilburn at the time. The last films to be shown at the Theatre were 'The Ghoul,' and 'I Don't Want to be Born,' on the 14th of July 1975.

The Theatre was then converted into a Nightclub which opened as Butty's on the 23rd of February the following year in 1976. The Club would later be renamed the 'National Ballroom' and later still it became the popular Irish live music venue, the 'National Club.'

In the Spring of 1999 the National Club was closed and the building was unused for several years until it was bought by an evangelical church group who would later be embroiled in a scandal regarding the sexual misconduct of a preacher with the congregation.

In 2009 the Grange is currently owned by the 'United Church of the Kingdom of God,' a Brazilian based religious organisation.

Formerly known as: The Grange Cinema, Kilburn High Road. Former cinema, now club premises. Built in 1914 by Edward A Stone. Stucco, channelled to ground floor. Red and plum coloured brick returns and rear. Slate mansard roof with terracotta cresting; green copper dome surmounted by lantern with cupola above entrance bays.

PLAN: rectangular plan on island site.

EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. 8 bays to main road plus 3 bay canted corner with main entrance to right. Various doorways to ground floor. Entablature with projecting cornice at 1st floor level. 1st floor entrance bays with round-arched windows having margin glazing with stained glass and keystones flanked by channelled pilasters supporting a projecting cornice and parapet with recessed panels. Symmetrical 1st floor facade to main road with five 5-light windows with patterned glazing bars and stained glass flanked by channelled pilasters supporting a parapet. Centre bay slightly projecting with stepped pediment having an enriched plaque inscribed "The Grange". Each end bay with shallow round-arched niche containing a blind rectangular panel and panel inscribed "The Grange Cinema"; keystone and stepped pediment with festoons. Right hand return of plum coloured brick with red brick quoins and 6 pilasters rising through 1st and 2nd floors to support a red brick entablature at 3rd floor level; 3rd floor central attic of 4 pilasters with pediment flanked by parapet. Rear and left hand return in similar style but plainer.

INTERIOR: dramatic, double-height, top-lit foyer with Adam style enrichment; Ionic columns support, on large console brackets, an oval balustrade to the 1st floor lit by stained glass windows and mirrors flanked by enriched pilasters carrying ribs to central oval blind lantern. 1st floor, gained by wide stair, with ornate panelling and plasterwork and some good 1930s light fittings to circulation areas. Massive auditorium with U-shaped balcony on enriched pillars providing enriched plaster arcade to ground floor. Coved, enriched, panelled plasterwork ceiling with intricate detailing on beams and circular air vents. To either side, balconies arcaded. Proscenium arch flanked by large enriched pilasters; widened by MK Matthews, 1927. Seating now removed and side balconies partly masked by bar partitioning.

HISTORICAL NOTE: designed to seat 2,310, The Grange was the largest cinema in Europe when constructed and one of very few surviving examples nationally that display cinema design at its point of departure from theatre planning.