PRESS RELEASE 

January 2007

Last Bid to Save Manchesters Best Historic Cinema

The Cinema Theatre Association has put forward the historic Paramount/Odeon cinema in Manchester for urgent spotlisting at Grade II. This fine building is now under serious threat of demolition and is to be replaced with a nondescript office block. If this is allowed, Manchester will loose an important part of its architectural and social history and a beautiful building as well.

The Paramount in Manchester was built in 1930 by the American based Paramount Pictures Corporation as an extremely early example of an international expansion programme. Paramount was also a pioneer in that it launched a small chain of cinemas not only in London but in the main UK provincial cities as the only large Hollywood studio to do so at the time. They all were all designed by architects Verity and Beverley, and were in prominent city-centre locations. The architects were very aware of the latest architectural trends in America and the UK Paramount cinemas at large exemplify an intriguing and unique triangle of stylistic connections between the continent, the United States and the UK.

The Paramount in Manchester is sober and restrained and looks very American with its monumental classical Art Deco frontage. This is highly interesting and shows how at this point the architects were still very much influenced by current architectural developments from the circuit’s homeland. It is a formal, almost municipal looking building. The façade has recessed pilasters with Art Deco capitals that reach from the canopy to the parapet and give the cinema a serious and grand appearance.

This was a very expensive building with its luscious Beaux Arts style French Baroque interior and Art Deco overtones. Here too the building took its cue stylistically from the US where the Parisian Louis XV cartouche-style with its curls and volutes was very much in vogue. A stylistic comparison can be made with the many residential blocks, office buildings and stations designed by McKim, Mead & White, the most prestigious architectural firm in America at the time and contemporary with Verity and Beverley. This French style is unusual in England and extremely rare for cinemas.

The Manchester Paramount could originally seat an audience of 2920 and there was no other cinema of this scale in the wider geographic vicinity. It was the most significant cinema in Manchester and the North West and it showed all the important movies. It was definitely the place to go to in its heyday.

"The Manchester Paramount is the pest preserved of all of the Paramount cinema theatres still standing in the UK. While it was thought that the luxurious interior had been lost over the years, we have now discovered that most of the plasterwork and decoration is still there", says Eva Branscome of the Cinema Theatre Association. "This is a really exciting discovery and just in the nick of time. We have now provided English Heritage with this new evidence and have asked them to urgently spot-list the building. We hope that Manchester City Council will now also turn down the application for demolition. In the light of the new findings it would be a tremendous loss to Manchester’s architectural and social history if this building were to be wantonly destroyed."

The bid to save this picture palace from demolition is being supported by local as well as national conservation groups, such as the Manchester Civic Society, the Twentieth Century Society and the Theatres Trust.

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