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

Art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building, located at 161–169

Essex Road Essex Road is a main road in Islington, London. It is part of the A104 road (England), 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 I ...

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, London. It was completed in 1930 as a

cine-variety Cine-variety is a form of entertainment with a mix of Music hall, variety acts performing in between the showing of films all for the price of one admission fee. It was popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1900 and the 1930s. Cine-var ...

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 or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

’s tomb in November 1922 influenced the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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 duri ...

, with Egyptian decorations in the foyer, while 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. 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 over 70 locations throughout the country. Mecca Bingo is owned by the Rank Group, which operates bingos, casinos and online gambling in Belgium, Spain and Britain. ...

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 café 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