The Wallaw Cinema is a former cinema, now a

Wetherspoons J D Wetherspoon (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a British pub company operating in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim ...

pub The Wallaw, in

Blyth, Northumberland Blyth () is a port town, port and seaside town as well as a civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth, Northumberland, River Blyth. It has a population of 39,731 as of the 2021 cens ...

, England. it is a Grade II

listed building 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, Hi ...

: the listing text remarks that it is "a rare and good example of a 1930s streamlined Moderne style cinema".

History and description

The architects were Percy Lindsay Browne, Son and Harding, of Newcastle upon Tyne, who designed many cinemas in the north east of England; it is thought this cinema was designed by Charles Alfred Harding. It was built for Wallaw Pictures Ltd of

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

, which had a chain of cinemas in the area. It opened on 16 November 1937."Wallaw Cinema"
''Cinema Treasures''. Retrieved 9 January 2025. It was built in Moderne style; the exterior is of brick with cement or artificial stone dressings. It had 1,600 seats, and was both a cinema and theatre."Wallaw"

Theatres Trust The Theatres Trust is the National Advisory Public Body for Theatres in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1976 by an Act of Parliament to "promote the better protection of theatres for the benefit of the nation". The Trust has played a lead ...

. Retrieved 9 January 2025. It was taken over in 1955 by

ABC Cinemas ABC Cinemas (Associated British Cinemas) was a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. Originally a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), it operated between the 1920s and the 1980s. The brand name was reused in ...

. From 1970 it was operated by a succession of independent companies. In 1987 it was converted to have three screens, with two small cinemas under the balcony, leaving the main part of the cinema seating 500 in the circle and 300 in the stalls. The original fittings were retained, including covered lighting and decorative plasterwork, the

proscenium A proscenium (, ) is the virtual vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame ...

having flanking Moderne-style

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. In 1998 it was refurbished, and in that year was given listed building status, Grade II. It closed in 2003, and after remaining unused for a number of years it was purchased by the pub chain

; it was renovated, and opened in December 2013 as "The Wallaw".

References

{{reflist Blyth, Northumberland Buildings and structures completed in 1937 Former cinemas in England Grade II listed pubs in Northumberland Moderne architecture