Regent

Before the recent alterations, this was still essentially Trent’s impressive 1929 cinema with full stage facilities, occupying an area between Pall Mall, Piccadilly and Cheapside. Excluding the Theatre Royal, the Regent now represents the only purpose-built proscenium theatre in the Potteries after the regrettable loss of the Longton Empire. The side fronting Cheapside originally housed the main exits from the rear of the stalls and circle. It was a three storey building with channelled ground floor, red brick above, divided into three unequal bays by pilasters; the name REGENT in a central panel; stone cornice and parapet. The rear side facing Pall Mall was of three storeys to the right. It had a monumental fly tower to the left, red brick with white faience dressings; the name REGENT again in a central panel. The main entrance in Piccadilly was and is in white faience with a large window above an altered canopy. Mask ornaments.

The auditorium was a striking work of its time in cine-Deco style (described at the time as ‘modern French’). Square coved proscenium flanked by organ panels. Boxes stepped down from circle front. Ornamental dome with lantern in ceiling. Tripling in 1972 did not irreversibly destroy theatre potential or architectural treatment.

The 1999 works constituted one of the most radical reconstructions of a theatre to be undertaken in recent decades (compare Edinburgh Festival Theatre). The stage house and the back of house elevation to Pall Mall have been totally reconstructed, the stage and proscenium advanced into the auditorium and the front of house accommodation considerably improved, adopting throughout, internally, the Art Deco architectural vocabulary of the Trent cinema. Large orchestra pit.