The Dancehouse

The building which now houses the Dancehouse Theatre, on Oxford Road, Manchester, was originally designed by Pendleton and Dickson for the property developer Emmanuel Nove, a Ukrainian who came to the city in the late 19th century. The building was built in 1929-30 originally containing two large meeting halls over a parade of shops. Before the interior of the halls was completed, they were converted into two cinemas (The Regal Twins) with fashionable 1930 Art Deco interiors, the world's first multiplex. These were converted, in 1972, to a five screen complex (Studios 1 to 5) by Star Group, as the first five-cinema complex in Britain. before closing in the 1980s. Star Group also established…