Paignton Picture House

 

Paignton Picture House

We were asked by the Paignton Picture House Trust to review the heritage significance of the Grade II* listed Paignton Picture House - one of Europe’s earliest surviving purpose-built cinemas - in order to inform proposals being developed by AOC Architecture.

Paignton Picture House opened in 1914 and closed in 1999. By 2011 it had been placed on Historic England’s Heritage At Risk register. In 2013 a group of dedicated local people with a passion for historic buildings came together to set up a Buildings Preservation Trust. Paignton Picture House Trust’s vision is to create a community and cultural hub for Torbay and in 2015 it secured ownership of the site, with support from Historic England.

Our report established a new understanding of the history and significance of the building in collaboration with the Trust, who will move forward with plans to refurbish the site for creative, cultural and community uses.

The Picture House will be fully restored, uncovering and celebrating unique architectural features such as a mosaic floor in the ground floor foyer, original ticket offices, ornate plasterwork and Art Deco lighting. Significant structural interventions to the auditorium floor and the complete re-roofing of the auditorium will give the building a long-term future. Visitors will enjoy a café on the ground floor in a new foyer, as well as a community space on the second floor which has never been open to the public. The auditorium will function as a multi-use space. The building will become fully accessible, with attractive ramped terrace to the front and a small extension for a lift to the upper floors.  

The building will also be an exemplar of how to retrofit environmental solutions in a Grade II* listed building, including heat pumps, external insulation, bespoke secondary glazing and solar panels, helping the building move towards net zero. 

The project has secured almost £4m funding, including £2.95m from the Cultural Development Fund, £1.25m from the Future High Streets Fund. Early phase conservation works - chiefly the restoration of the façade in 2021 - were supported by Historic England and the Architectural Heritage Fund. In 2024, the Trust secured a further £250,000 of funding for the restoration of the cinema from the Garfield Weston Foundation, a family-established grant-maker that supports a wide range of UK-based charities. This sum was in addition to a further £3m secured from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport but also from organisations including Historic England, the Architectural Heritage Fund and Rosalind Hicks Charitable Trust.

The project is due to complete in 2025.

Client: Paignton Picture House Trust
Architects: AOC Architecture