Former National Picture Theatre

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 25/02/2016

680-1/0/10129

KINGSTON UPON HULL
BEVERLEY ROAD
Former National Picture Theatre

02-JAN-07

II
Cinema, 1914, designed by architects Runton and Barry for the De-Luxe Theatre Company. Red brick and stone dressings with steel-reinforced concrete. Rectangular in plan, the building filled its plot, with a 12m front onto Beverley Road and extending back around 60m. An ornate red brick and stone facade, in a Baroque revival style with twinned ionic pilasters flanking the entrance archway. There is a decorated oculus in the outer bays of the facade at a high level. Behind the façade the partial remains of the cinema, extending back to a reinforced concrete cross-beam which carried the gallery. Vestibule flanked by the lower flights of staircases up to the gallery level, and a ticket office. Beyond, a foyer which is thought to have a mosaic floor surviving beneath the rubble. To the east of the foyer are the much damaged lower levels of the manager's office with stairs to the projection box on one side and stairs to the gallery foyer on the other. East of this are the fragmentary remains of the auditorium, the level of survival of which is such that no significance can be attributed to them, although there is poignancy in the site as a whole.

HISTORY:
This building was badly damaged during a Luftwaffe air raid on 18th March 1941. Although 150 people were sheltering in the foyer, no one was killed. The building is remarkable for being a rare survival of a building bombed during the Blitz of World War ll. The building is all that is substantial that remains as a physical reminder of the Hull Blitz, a local event of national and European significance.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:
A cinema erected in 1914 with a brick and stone facade in a Baroque revival style, and in brick and steel-reinforced concrete at the rear. It was destroyed in part during an air raid in 1941 and it stands in a ruinous condition. Its special interest is in the fact that it is a rare surviving example of a building bombed out during the Blitz. This special interest rests in the facade, vestibule and foyer. The fragmentary survival of the auditorium is of much less significance, although there is poignancy in the site as a whole. The building is listable on the grounds of historical association with an event of at least Europe-wide importance that had a devastating impact on the city of Hull. Air raids on Hull went on longer than on any other British city and of Hull's 91,660 houses only 5,945 survived the air raids undamaged. There is sufficient of the National Picture Theatre remaining to embody the significance of the event happened upon it, and the particular role cinemas had in wartime as centres for news and entertainment, gives the remains additional resonance.

SOURCES:
Rev Graystone, P. 'The Blitz on Hull 1940-45', 1991
Geraghty, T. 'A North-East Coast Town', 1951
Morrison, H. 'An Autobiography', 1960
HMSO, 'Front Line 1940 -41', 1942
Richards J.M., 'The Bombed Buildings of Britain', 1942
Ramsey, W.G. (ed) 'The Blitz Then and Now', c.1987

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

502402

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Morrison, H, An Autobiography (1960),
Graystone, Reverend P, The Blitz on Hull 1940-45 (1991),
HMSO, , Front Line 1940-41 (1942),
Richards, J M, The Bombed Buildings of Britain (1942),
Geraghty, T, A North East Coast Town (1951),
Ramsey, WG, The Blitz Then and Now (1987),
Hull Main Target of Heavy Bombing Attack in The Hull Daily Mail, ,Vol. , (19th March 1941), 1

Websites
Hull and East Riding At War, 18th/19th March 1941, Raid No 31, accessed 25/02/2016 from http://www.hullandeastridingatwar.co.uk/index.php/theblitz/raids1941/march41/1819mar41

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