Survey Data
Reg No
12000098
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Cultural, Social
Previous Name
Savoy Cinema
Original Use
Cinema
In Use As
Theatre/opera house/concert hall
Date
1940 - 1950
Coordinates
250490, 156223
Date Recorded
16/06/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached single-bay double-height cinema, pre-1945, on a cranked plan with three-bay double-height entrance bay to west having single-bay full-height breakfront, and single-bay single-storey flat-roofed advanced flanking end bays. Renovated and extended, 1993, comprising single-bay double-height flat-roofed stage house to east with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting glazed porch added to breakfront to accommodate use as theatre. Roofs not visible behind parapets with concealed cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat roof to stage house not visible. Pitched (gabled) glazed roof to porch in iron frame on iron colonettes. Painted rendered walls with crow-stepped gables to main (auditorium) block and to entrance bay having red brick soldier course parapets to entrance bay, and red brick soldier course parapets to advanced flanking end bays. Painted corrugated-iron-clad walls to stage house. Square-headed window opening to breakfront in crow-stepped recess with profiled window openings to flanking bays having rendered surrounds, square-headed window openings to remainder with concrete sills, and fixed-pane timber windows to all window openings having casement section to breakfront. Square-headed openings to porch with glazed double doors having fixed-pane flanking lights. Set back from line of road on a slightly elevated site with flight of six cut-limestone steps leading to red brick cobbled forecourt.
Appraisal
A substantial cinema incorporating a pared-down Art Deco-inspired theme, thereby presenting a distinctive landmark in a streetscape comprised primarily of Classically-proportioned houses. Adhering to a standard evident across the country a functional auditorium block exhibiting little extraneous ornamentation is fronted by a finely-detailed entrance bay. While many contemporary cinemas have been lost having been sympathetically converted to an alternative cultural use the building remains an important element of the mid twentieth-century architectural heritage of Kilkenny.