The former Plaza Theatre in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

building designed as a 2000-seat

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking * ...

by Eric Heath for the

Hoyts The Hoyts Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes Hoyts Cinemas and Val Morgan. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia's second largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospita ...

Group, and opened in 1930. It is no longer used as a cinema.

Location

The building is located at 600

George Street, Sydney George Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney. It was Sydney's original high street, and remains one of the busiest streets in the city centre. It connects a number of the city's most important buildings and precincts. ...

on the western half of the block bounded by Wilmot Street and Central Street to the sides and

Pitt Street Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sec ...

to the rear. It is a prominent feature of the entertainment sector's streetscape.

History

The Plaza Theatre was built during a ''golden age'' of cinema-going in[Australia and was opened on 11 April 1930.The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981, p.2/102 designed as a 2000-seat

by Eric Heath for

.Heritage Branch
Retrieved 20.6.2008 The theatre's organ was built circa 1923 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York and was installed at the Plaza in 1937 from the Wintergarden Theatre, Brisbane. It was removed around 1968 and the console was relocated to a private residence in [ arris Park, New South Wales. By 1950 cinema attendance had declined, further affected by the introduction of television in 1956. Many suburban cinemas closed down and in the city a number of theatres were demolished for redevelopment. In 1977 the Plaza was closed as a cinema and the foyer was converted to a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

and the auditorium was converted to a skating rink, concert venue and restaurant. A Heritage order prevented its demolition until 1995 when the auditorium became

Planet Hollywood Planet Hollywood International Inc. (stylized as planet Hollywood, planet Hollywood observatory and ph) is a themed restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood. The company is owned by Earl Enterprises corporation. Earl En ...

. That area is now a licensed bar.

Design and construction

The building was constructed in the years 1929 and 1930 by the building firm James Porter & Sons and to a design by Eric Heath. The brickwork facade is rendered in a rough cast

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

giving an exaggerated texture. The raised decorative detailing is in precast concrete. There are five floors. including a

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

. and the three-storey facade above the

awning An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a lig ...

symmetrical Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...

. It is dominated by a three

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent materia ...

four

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

. The columns are supported on pedimented brackets and finish in an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

incorporating spiral rn. The individual windows are topped by decoration, and the north-west corner is

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed.

Significance

The building is an example of central Sydney's inter-war building boom in theatre buildings and one of a handful of central Sydney's surviving theatre buildings. The building is of historic significance at a

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

level due to its ability to reflect the inter-war boom period of

picture palace A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 192 ...

buildings in Sydney and for its contribution to the development of Sydney's George Street cinema precinct. It is an example of the

Spanish Mission style The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

and is particularly notable for its external

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

detailing. It is listed on the Heritage Register of New South Wales as well as the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

Interiors

The majority of the interior detailing has been lost since the building's demise as a cinema, although remnants remain in the McDonald's restaurant that is now in sections of the original

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

. These include sections of the beamed

ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...

, typical Spanish motifs and coloured and stencilled floral motifs on the ceiling.Cinema Tour
Retrieved 20.6.2008 Sections of the

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

stencilled ceilings in the auditorium remain.

Gallery

File:(1)Former Plaza Cinema George Street Sydney-5.jpg, Detail of the George Street façade highlighting the Corinthian column loggia. File: (1)Former Plaza Cinema George Street Sydney-3.jpg, Interior detailing preserved in the foyer. File: (1)Former Plaza Cinema George Street Sydney-4.jpg, A section of the beamed ceiling showing coloured and stencilled floral motifs.

References

External Links

*Proposed Alterations and Additions to Old Plaza Theatre at 600 George Street, Sydney. 1977, 1980 and 1986 from National Trust of Australia (New South Wales) : collection of architectural plans and drawings of historic buildings,

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

,
PXD 722/p.F.1999
{{Sydney landmarks Former theatres in Sydney Theatres completed in 1930 Spanish Colonial Revival architecture Cinemas in Sydney 1930 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures completed in 1930 Former cinemas