The Rex, Berkhamsted - Architecture

Architecture

The Rex was designed in a striking Art Deco style by architect David Evelyn Nye.

When the cinema was opened, the main entrance to the Rex was on the corner of the High Street, with a curved concrete canopy and tall vertical windows illuminating the double-height entrance foyer. Within the foyer, a large Art Deco chandelier hung from a decorated ceiling above a curved island ticket booth.

In those days, cinemagoers would access the auditorium either via steps up to the stalls or via the two staircases which swept up to a central door to the circle seats. The auditorium was placed at 90° to the foyer, extending across the site parallel to the main road. To maximise the space, the projection booth was built into an exterior balcony protruding form the building above Three Close Lane, supported by large concrete brackets. It was accessed by an external iron staircase to reduce the fire risk of bringing flammable nitrate film stock into the theatre. A joke shared among local residents was that the architect had forgotten to add a projection room and that this box was added later. As space was at a premium in the circle, a café and dining room was located on the ground floor behind the stalls and the foyer, with the result that the circle had more seats than the stalls.

The interior design of the Rex included a variety of ornate features; the designer is not known but it is assumed to be the work of Mollo and Egan who collaborated with Nye on other cinema interiors. The Rex interior featured stylised floral stucco friezes around the dining room, a striking decorated foyer ceiling rose, and the nautical flavour set by Nye's dining room porthole windows was continued with the addition of scallop shell-shaped light fittings and stucco waves in the auditorium. The main screen itself was surrounded by an ornate proscenium, with Art Deco floral designs obscuring the ventilation grilles.

Since the cinema's dereliction and later re-opening, some of the original features have been lost; the chandelier and the ticket booth were removed after the 1976 Zetter takeover. The auditorium was divided in 1976 into two circle studio screens, while the stalls were used as a bingo hall. However, despite these alterations, most of the original fabric and decoration survived the years of decline, enough to merit spot-listing by English Heritage in 1988, and in 1990 the Department of the Environment recommended that the Rex be preserved.

Following the 2004 redevelopment, the refurbished Rex is smaller, having 350 seats compared to the original capacity of 1100 (due to the larger leg-room and provision of swivel chairs and cocktail tables). The refurbishment was sympathetic to the cinema's Art Deco heritage, notably with the installation of a new chandelier and new period style mirrors. The work also brought about the a major change to the building by separating the entire ground floor from the main cinema operation and converting it into a bar and restaurant. The decorated entrance foyer and dining room are now home to The Gatsby bar and restaurant, named in homage to the 1949 film The Great Gatsby whose poster hangs above the bar, in front of the former cinema entrance at the top of the (now disused) staircase.

Cinema audiences now gain access to the cinema, via a staircase and side entrance, to a more modest entrance foyer and box office which are located in an area underneath the stalls on the first floor. The ground floor stalls, accessed via stairs in the auditorium, are now laid out with lounge chairs and tables.

A plaque inside the cinema, unveiled on 14 February 1979 by actress Jane Asher, commemorates the site's association with J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan.

• Detail of the decorated frieze

• The decorated proscenium arch

• Close-up of a scallop-shell wall light

• Entrance to the Rex in 2006