Duke of York's Cinema

The Duke of York's cinema was built at the cost of £3000 by actress-manager Violet Melnotte-Wyatt. It opened on 22 September 1910 The architects were Clayton & Black. The building remains largely unaltered, it even retains one of its boxes in the balcony area. The original colour scheme was red and cream. The Duke of York's was always a quality cinema for the more discerning patron, its marketing tag-line for many years was "Bring her to the Duke's, it is fit for a Duchess." The name came from the West End theatre which its first proprietor Mrs Melnotte-Wyatt was also associated with. Being slightly outside the town centre, the Duke's catered for its local audience and this has been its…

The cinema has a single screen with 278 seats, including a luxury balcony. It originally seated over 800, but modifications have been made to the inside of the building to create the café/bar upstairs, a concession space downstairs, and to allow for greater comfort. In 1991, a 20 ft pair of can-can dancer's legs were acquired from the recently closed Not The Moulin Rouge Theatre in Oxford, and were installed onto the outside front balcony. These were later moved to their current position on the roof during a refurbishment in 1995.