Survey Data
Reg No
32314011
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Cinema
Date
1940 - 1950
Coordinates
166374, 315866
Date Recorded
02/08/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached rendered former cinema, built c. 1945, now disused. Seven-bay auditorium, flat-roofed single-storey entrance block to south with centrally-located flat-roofed projection room over. Pitched corrugated-asbestos roof to main block, patent ridge capping, verge parapet with concrete coping to south gable, cast-iron rainwater goods. Unpainted roughcast walling to auditorium and projection room, pilasters to either side of auditorium south gable-end capped with flat concrete copings, painted smooth-rendered framing to frontage containing asymmetrical curved red brick walls leading inwards to deeply recessed entrance, blank full-width recessed signage fascia, painted smooth-rendered plinth. Square-headed window openings to central bays of auditorium, smooth-rendered surrounds, masonry sills, windows missing. Circular window in south gable, boarded-up. Square-headed curved windows set in brick entrance walling, projecting painted concrete surrounds, boarded-up. Square-headed main entrance door opening, two sets of metal-framed double doors, boarded-up. Square-headed secondary entrance to east, boarded-up, approached by flight of curved concrete steps. Street fronted on slightly inclined street.
Appraisal
An interesting example of a single-screen rural cinema of the 1950s. Its boldly splayed frontage with curved brickwork sweeping in to the entrance doors masks a more conventional auditorium behind. Of social significance in the context of emerging internationalism in post-Second World War Ireland. The cinema has been closed since 1975.