Pavilion (North Ormesby)

A surprising survival of a small local variety theatre of c.1906/8, used as a cinema for most of its life and now a children’s play centre. When it became a cinema in 1916, a rolled screen permitted continued use of stage.

Externally extremely plain, with one flank wall in red brick, the others rendered. Small central entrance in gabled façade. Stage access doors are now blocked. Internally there is one flat-fronted balcony which may originally have returned to the proscenium wall. The balcony area is now partitioned off and the rear stalls area is used as offices and stores. A new entrance was constructed in 1992 on the side of the building.

Closed in the mid 1950s, it became a bingo hall then, after a period of dereliction, converted to its present use, for which the stalls floor has been levelled and the stage subdivided. The top of the simple proscenium arch is concealed by a false ceiling.