Former Imperial Cinema, St Matthew's, Walsall

Summary

An agricultural hall of 1868-1869 by GB Nichols, remodelled as a theatre in 1880, then in 1914 largely re-built and converted to a cinema by JH Hickton and HE Farmer.

Description

An agricultural hall of 1868-1869 by GB Nichols, remodelled as a theatre in 1880, then in 1914 largely re-built and converted to a cinema by JH Hickton and HE Farmer.

MATERIALS: brick with stucco detailing under a slate roof.

PLAN: rectangular, orientated north-west / south-east with the front elevation to Darwall Street in the north-west. The main roof is pitched with gables to the north-west and south-east with a hipped lantern roof over it. A smaller pitched roof with a lower ridge than the main part covers the new front to Darwall Street added in 1914. The rear part of the south-west side elevation has a single-storey flat roofed outshot from which a lean-to slate roof projects to form a covered walkway. There are two small additions to the rear south-west and north-east corners, these are linked by a wall which encloses a yard accessed from the south-east end of the hall.

EXTERIOR: walls are brick in English Bond with stucco details. Windows are casements with margin lights and further glazing bars dividing off the top third of the window which are decorated with a cross in the centre.
The principal elevation is of three bays with the central bay three stages in height and wider than the two flanking bays. Ground and first floor levels of the central bay are recessed from the front of the building, with four steps leading up to the entrance which is a timber frame holding a double doorway to either side of a single door-width fixed full-height glazed panel. The entrance is framed by two Tuscan columns which support a balcony dividing the ground and first floors within the central bay. A rusticated arch springs from the sides of the recess above the rail of the balcony revealing three windows behind it: a central one of three casements, the other two each of two casements. The side windows have been truncated at their base by the insertion of large vents.

The two side bays are in brick, with projecting pilasters to the sides of the entrance and another pilaster set just back from the corners. These pilasters have a stucco panel at their tops with a thin plaster leaf-carved corbel below the cornice above. Each side bay has a two-casement window at ground and first floors. Between these windows is a square plate with a cross decoration from which a large lantern is fixed. Above the first floor a frieze covers all three bays. It is blank and recessed slightly over the central bay and has two slightly raised panels in line with the brick pilasters over the side bays. Above the frieze there is a parapet over the side bays, and the central bay has two windows which have lost their original glazing bars either side of a sign reading ‘IMPERIAL’. The highest point of the front is a triangular pediment on top of the central bay with a rosette in its centre.

The south-west side elevation is a continuation of the Darwall Street front to its north-west end. This front section has the same brick pilasters as the side bays to the front elevation, with the same frieze and parapet above. There is a doorway at first floor level with a fire escape ladder and the frame of a two-casement window at ground floor level. Beyond this to the south-east the elevation is largely solid. The rear, south-east end has a single storey narrow outshot under a flat roof, with a lean-to slate roof projecting out to cover a walkway beneath. A ramp runs alongside the front part of the elevation up to a doorway in the north-west elevation of the outshot. There are four circular windows at the top of the first floor level. To the rear of the outshot is a further two-storey extension which projects out from the line of the main building to the same extent as the outshot. This extension is asymmetrical with the north-west end having two small windows at ground floor level with two larger windows over. There is a pair of double fire escape doors centrally with a large sash above, then to the south-east end two tall ground floor windows with a single sash over those. There is a tall chimney stack at the southern corner.

The rear, south-east elevation of the main building has a single large glazed opening to a small yard. The yard has a small building containing staircases to the north, and a fire exit from the extension to the south-west elevation to the south. The yard is enclosed by a brick wall, solid except for a ground floor window at the south end and single and double doorways to the staircases at the northern end.

The north-east side elevation is obscured at the Darwall Street end by Caxton Chambers (numbers 2 and 2a Darwall Street). The rest of the elevation is a solid brick wall, the south end of which has a mono-pitch roof to cover the small building housing staircases on the north side of the rear yard.

INTERIOR: the building is a high open hall with a front section divided into three stories and ancillary rooms to the rear. A cantilevered balcony extends out into the hall sloping downwards from second floor level. The front of the balcony presented to the auditorium is curved and decorated with plaster swags and garlands.

The front doors open to a foyer with two flights of concrete quarter-turn stairs leading up to the first and second floors, one stair immediately either side of the front doors. The foyer ceiling has a deep moulded cornice and rounded depressions for light fittings. The foyer has been opened up so that it leads directly into the auditorium, the near part of which has been partitioned to provide toilets then a kitchen to the left and seating booths to the right. Beyond the kitchen there are late-C20 steps down to the bar at what was formerly the stage and screen end of the hall. To the right are the side entrances and exits through the single storey outshot. A new balcony has been added over the bar with stairs up on the left hand side. Behind and above the bar a large panelled glass screen has replaced the cinema screen, glass doors within this provide access to the small rear yard. The screen is flanked by two pilasters like those on the walls but brought in to form a proscenium arch with one of the roof trusses.

The auditorium ceiling is divided horizontally by plaster-covered trusses which continue down the walls where they meet the tops of pilasters, dividing the hall into bays. Squared plaster-covered beams running the length of the hall at right angles to the trusses separate the sides of the ceiling into coffers which are flat as opposed to the curved central parts. The side coffers are decorated with an egg and dart moulded cornice. Light fittings in the curved parts of the ceiling are surrounded by circular plaster frames. At the crossing of the roof trusses and long beams the square spaces are decorated with moulded plaster panels. The faces of the trusses where they rise to the curved ceiling are decorated with circular plaster wreaths, as are the spandrels of the trusses where they arch down to the pilasters. The tops of the pilasters are decorated with deep relief moulded square floral garlands. Every bay of the walls between the pilasters is decorated with a moulded frame around its edges, and every other bay has a circular window at its top.

The first floor above the foyer has the continuation of the stairs to the front corners of the building with the rooms here used for routing services. The stairs continue to the second floor where what were the projection and operation rooms have been opened up and used for plant and service ducting. There is access to the balcony which has been partitioned to route further ducting. The rooms behind the bar are various toilet and service rooms and alternative exit routes with stairs from various levels. At first floor level behind the screen are toilets and exit stairs in small extensions either side of the yard.

History

In the C19 Walsall grew rapidly from a small market town to a large industrial one. In the second half of the C19 this growth was reflected by the construction of several large public buildings in the centre of the town. The former Imperial Cinema has its origins as one such building; in response to the needs of local agricultural producers and traders it was first built as a corn exchange financed by public sale of shares. The building was completed in 1868 and had its official opening in 1869. The architect was George Benjamin Nichols of West Bromwich. Nichols was active in Walsall at this time having also been responsible for the 1867 remodelling of the council house (replaced by the present one in 1905) and for the GII* listed Guildhall (National Heritage List for England 1076399), also of 1867. The building had been designed to have a dual role as both corn exchange and public assembly rooms, though it was the use for public entertainments which proved the more popular, with the building being altered in 1880 to allow more galleried seating and exits. It was refurbished again in 1887 with fire safety improved, and around this time the name was changed to St George’s Hall. In 1899 the lease of the theatre was taken on by the Walsall Theatres Company who at this time introduced electricity and changed the name to the Imperial Theatre.

The public display of moving pictures as entertainment was introduced in France by the Lumiere brothers in 1895, leading to great public appetite for the new medium worldwide. Early films were often shown at travelling fairs or as one night only specials in other venues, and Walsall didn’t have a permanent building showing films until 1905 when Her Majesty’s Theatre Walsall (demolished 1937) began to do so regularly. The Imperial started to show films in 1908, with films soon becoming their main commercial offering. Following the passing of the 1909 Cinematograph Act, the Imperial Theatre gained a cinema licence in 1910.
In 1914 the Imperial underwent its most radical overhaul yet, with contemporary newspaper reports describing a complete rebuilding with the exceptions only of roof and external walls. This re-build with a new front in neo-Georgian style was designed by the local architects’ practice of J H Hickton and H E Farmer. Although now principally a cinema, the 1914 conversion included dressing rooms and a fly-tower which would also allow live performances to be staged. This was a common arrangement for the earliest cinemas, where cine-variety shows which combined live acts between screenings of films were popular entertainments.

The cinema was updated with the installation of a sound system in 1930 so that it could show the new talking pictures which had become mainstream for the American Hollywood studios by the end of the 1920s. In 1936 the Imperial was taken on by the Associated British Cinemas (ABC) group. Improvements were incremental after this and included: new fire exits and escapes in the 1930s and 1940s, the steps to the front replaced in the late-1940s, a new sound system in 1951 and a new wide screen in 1955. In May 1968 the owners ABC changed the use of the venue from a cinema to a bingo and social club and it was refurbished again, though retained cinema seats and the balcony. The bingo hall had closed a short time before the Imperial re-opened as a public house in 1997. The conversion to public house removed the stage end of the building and saw the insertion of a large kitchen into the auditorium. Servicing for the large kitchen is routed through most of the former ancillary rooms, and a partition for servicing was inserted across the balcony. The public house shut in 2016 leaving the building unused.

Reasons for Listing

The former Imperial Cinema, Walsall, an agricultural hall of 1868-1869 by GB Nichols, remodelled as a theatre in 1880, then in 1914 largely re-built and converted to a cinema by JH Hickton and HE Farmer, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* as a rare survival of one of the earliest English cinemas;

* for the quality of its dignified neo-Georgian façade whose arched entrance and narrow width indicate its function as a cinema;

* for, despite some late-C20 alterations, a clearly readable plan form identifying it as a very early cinema.

Historic Interest:

* it is well documented as a cine-variety theatre, a building type which represents a watershed moment in the rapid transition from music hall to cinema.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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