Plaza Cinema, Stockport

The first plans for a cinema on this site were made speculatively by William Thornley in 1929. It was a conservative scheme that incorporated a motor garage, a billiard hall, and a restaurant all above a 1,600-seat cinema. Thornley, an architect originating from Bolton who had trained with Bradshaw Gass & Hope, was experienced in designing small-scale silent film cinemas. Directors of the Ambassador cinema circuit, Fred Read, Alfred Snape and Arthur Ward had just opened the 1,850 seat Regal Cinema 7.9 mi away in Manchester Road, Altrincham, were looking for a site in central Stockport in 1931. They evaluated Thornley's speculative scheme but rejected his original design. As a condition of…

The building was designed in 1929 by William Thornley and constructed in 1932–33. It is in the Art Deco style, and is of brick, with much internal structural steelwork, and with its front elevation clad in faience, a glazed architectural terracotta. There is also a foyer with a long, first-floor restaurant above, overlooking Mersey Square. It was listed in 1997 at Grade II* by Historic England. It is described as a "remarkably lavish exercise in the Art Deco style", and an "exceptionally complete example of a 1930s 'super' cinema, which survives little altered and retains its Compton organ".