Listed Building record MDR5808 - Scala Cinema, Ilkeston

Scala Cinema is a grade II* listed cinema built in 1913 by John Parsons and Sons of Bulwell. It was constructed by Pegg and Bailey of Derby. It is built of stock brick, the front block painted terracotta by Hathern. It has a Welsh slate roof, and a single boiler chimney to the west. It comprises a tall, rectangular hall with a short gallery and small ancillary structures to the west (originally shielded by buildings) and a projecting foyer area to the front. The frontispiece is in Edwardian Classical style, with a utilitarian brick range behind. A projecting sound box to the rear of the cinema is indicative that this was originally a silent cinema without a stage area on which to mount the c. 1930 speaker equipment (i.e. that it was never a cine-variety hall). Inside is a panelled foyer the full width of the entrance, with an office in a canted bay to the right, and dog-leg stairs with an iron barley-sugar balustrade in a canted bay to the left. The central paybox probably dates to the late 1930s, contemporary with the double entrance doors in similar wood veneer with chrome handles. The auditorium is of seven bays with a one-and-a-half bay balcony at the rear. The original proscenium with pediment is now set behind a later free-standing screen. It has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with circular ventilation grilles and crossed by ribs with moulded fruit decoration. The gallery front is elaborately treated with flowing cartouche mouldings. Gas secondary lighting survives at the rear of the hall. Original seating survives to the front two-thirds of stalls. See List description for more details. (1) The Scala Cinema, constructed in 1913 and now a listed building of some importance, was built over the burial ground of a nearby Independent Chapel. (2)