PRESS RELEASE 

27th August 2006

Listed at Last!

After more than 12 years the excellent historic Palace Cinema in Conwy (North Wales) is now finally listed. The Cinema Theatre Association is thrilled that CADW have made the decision to add the building to the statutory list.

The CTA has been tirelessly lobbying to have the building inspected ever since the first listing request was sent in 1993. Now the cinema is listed but the interior was not recorded. "This was the best still unprotected cinema in Wales. But we are shocked that after all this time the inspector for CADW did not even go inside. Cinema architecture is all about the fabulous interiors and they are the first thing to go in any redevelopment scheme" says Richard Gray, Chair of Casework.

Built in 1936 by the Welsh architect Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, the cinema reuses the grey weathered stone salvaged from the Georgian House that had originally occupied this site. The façade is designed in a revivalist medieval style complete with crow-stepped gables. It is unique in the sense that this interwar cinema takes into account the context of its location.

On the inside a completely different streamlined world is created. This building is undeniably modern and in the decorative ironwork you can clearly see echoes of the highly influential 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. The auditorium is elliptical and there are six silver columns on either side of the screen. Above runs a simple cornice band complete with bas-reliefs of famous Hollywood film stars like Shirley Temple. There is horizontal banding on the side walls. The domed ceiling was originally bathed in the spectacular lighting effects from the Holophane system which had 400 continuously changing colours that still worked in the late 1970s.

Jon Williams, who does the Associations casework for Wales and has been following this case closely, is highly concerned: "It would be a terrible shame to loose this wonderful interior now that the building has finally been listed."

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