The former Carlton Cinema (and then Mecca Bingo) is an

Art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building, located at 161–169

Essex Road Essex Road is a main road in Islington, London. It is part of the A104 and connects Islington High Street with Balls Pond Road via Essex Road railway station. Location The road is about long. It starts as continuation of Islington Green, whic ...

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It was completed in 1930 as a cine-variety theatre with a capacity of 2,226 seats. Architect George Coles decided for an Egyptian style facade dressed in multi-coloured Hathernware tiles. The discovery of

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

’s tomb in November 1922 influenced the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style and the buildings erected in that period, particularly cinemas and theatres. Inside, the building is mainly

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

, with Egyptian decorations in the foyer, whilst the auditorium has a French Renaissance style. The Carlton Cinema was taken over by Associated British Cinemas Ltd. (ABC) in February 1935. It was renamed ABC in 1962. Then it was the Carlton cinema during the 60's which for the younger generation meant

Saturday morning pictures Saturday morning pictures were film shows put on in British cinemas between the 1920s and 1970s for children. They were shown on Saturday mornings and the price was normally 6d (2½p). At their peak, nearly 2,000 British cinemas put on a Saturday ...

. The building was then converted into a bingo hall which continued for almost 35 years as the

Mecca Bingo Mecca Bingo (formerly called Top Rank) is a British operator of bingo clubs, with 76 locations throughout the country. Mecca Bingo is owned by the Rank Group, which operates bingos, casinos and online gambling in Belgium, Spain and Britain. The Ra ...

Club, until closing in March 2007. It was purchased by an evangelical Christian church Resurrection Manifestations in 2013, who planned to partially reopen it as a cinema, also converting the former cafe area into a second screen. It was reopened in 2015 as Gracepoint, a 900 capacity venue available for hire and an active church. The façade and foyer of the building appear as the Roxy Cinema in episode 2 series 5 of Endeavour, titled ''Cartouche''.

References

External links

Gracepoint website
Art Deco architecture in London Buildings and structures completed in 1930 Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Islington Churches in the London Borough of Islington Egyptian Revival architecture in the United Kingdom Former cinemas in London {{London-struct-stub