Image ID: 06512

The Savoy Cinema site

Courtesy of Antoine

Middlegate
Newark on Trent
England

This picture shows the site for the construction of the Savoy Cinema. To the left is Howitt's Ironmongery shop. On 23rd January 1935 The Newark Advertiser reported that negotiations had been completed and a new 'Super Cinema' was to be built in Middlegate, Newark. The architect was to be Robert Crombie ARIBA of Baker Street, London. The Savoy Cinema was officially opened by the Mayor of Newark on Thursday 30th January 1936 at 7.30pm with the film 'Roberta'. The integral Savoy cafe also opened that week from 10am to 10pm daily. A description of the cinema as it originally appeared to the visitor follows. From Middlegate (to which there was a narrow, but architecturally impressive frontage) one entered under a modern canopy through entrance doors of mahogany. Inside, the foyer was decorated in white, picked out with mahogany fittings and an heraldic panel of Newark Castle. Floors were of mosaic and rubber lino in white, grey, black and green in a linear pattern. The balcony foyer, silver grey and black with a crimson carpet, and the cafe decorated in orange, set the scene for the Auditorium which was decorated in a 'Minehaha' (light shade) of green together with soft lighting and being fully upholstered and carpeted. The Savoy had seating for 1,500 picture-goers.

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