Chiltern Cinema
12 - 14 Station Road,
Beaconsfield,
HP9 1NL
12 - 14 Station Road,
Beaconsfield,
HP9 1NL
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Architects: W.F. Granger, Julian Rudolph Leathart
Firms: Leathart & Granger
Styles: Egyptian, Neo-Georgian
Previous Names: Picture House
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Mar 16, 2007 — Chiltern Cinema up for Grade II listing
Located in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Opened as the Picture House on 15th September 1927 with Antonio Moreno and Alice Terry in “Mare Nostrum”. Noted cinema architects Julian R. Leathart and W.F. Granger designed a simple but stylistic Georgian style cinema which had muted traces of Egyptian decoration within the foyer and at the sides of the proscenium arch. Seating was provided for 500 on one floor (there was no balcony).
It was operated as an Independent cinema for all its life and was purchased by Beaconsfield Urban District Council in 1960 and a stage was erected so that the building could be used for occasional stage presentations as well as full time cinema use. They re-named it the Chiltern Cinema from 8th November 1963.
In 1978 the Council leased the building to the operators of the Plaza Cinema, Margate, Kent and they re-seated the cinema, reducing the capacity to 277.
The Chiltern Cinema closed on 28th September 1989 and became a children’s play centre named ‘Zoom’. That closed in 2012, and the building was converted into a pizza restaurant which closed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was purchased by the J.D. Wetherspoon chain of pubs in early-2022 and they announced in late-July 2022 that the building would be converted into a pub in the Wetherspoons chain.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Does anyone have any photos of this cinema when it was in use? Thanks
Photo from March 2009 here:–
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/3379071652/
This cinema was used for the Norman Wisdom film Press for Time and can also be seen in a few other movies
The operators Zoom moved out in 2012. The old cinema is now a Prezzo pizza restaurant who have been operating since September 2012. Sadly, after its refurbishment, nothing of the original architecture remains and one would have no idea it used to be a cinema.
My mum watch Grease there when it first came out
It can also be seen in the 1962 film ‘Don’t Talk To Strange Men’ as the cinema that Janina Faye goes into to see ‘Pocketful of Miracles’.
I think the restaurant is called Prezzo?