New (Cranford) Cinema, Chester Road, Knutsford

KNUTSFORD - The Cranford Cinema (Knutsford) Limited propose erecting a new cinema in Chester-road adjacent to the station. Plans are being prepared by Messrs Charles Swain and Partners, Lloyds Bank Buildings, King Street, Manchester. [Builder 27 March 1931 Page 595]

CINEMA TO MATCH SURROUNDINGS Half-Timbered Building with Gable Roofs Preserving the Old-World Atmosphere - One of the most novel and picturesque cinemas ever designed this country, which will also be available for use as a theatre or concert hall, is shortly to be built in Knutsford, near Manchester, on a site nearly opposite the old and disused gaol. So that it will harmonise with the other buildings in the historic town it will built in the traditional Cheshire style of gable roofs and black and white timbered framing.  It will be one the very few half-timbered cinemas in the country. The new cinema-theatre, which will have a seating capacity of 1170, will be known as "The Cranford," and will be under the management of Mr J. F. Emery, whose circuit controls about 30 cinemas in the Manchester area. Work will be begun on it in a month, and it is hoped that the cinema will be opened about October. It will serve a district of about ten miles' radius, and there will be facilities for parking 200 cars. Part of the scheme, the total cost which will be in the neighbourhood of £28,000, is for a restaurant to seat 150 people, which will also be suitable for dancing and private parties. The equipment of the cinema will be most modern, and with an eye to the coming of the wide film the directors have decided to install the wide screen. Full stage and dressing room accommodation will be built, and it is anticipated that shows of local dramatic and operatic societies may be staged, in addition to concerts and lectures. Flood lighting will illuminate the exterior. Mr Charles Swain, the well-known Manchester architect, who has designed the building, said it would be the largest cinema in a very wide area. " I think Mrs Gaskell would have approved of it," he added. " I have, of course, read ' Cranford,' and I was anxious that the cinema should be in complete harmony with the old-world atmosphere of the town. A red-brick horror was unthinkable, and so we decided on half-timbered building. Instead of the ordinary verandah there will be an entrance porch, with pillars of red sandstone." Mr Swain claims to have built the first cinema in the North of England, a small hall accommodating two or three hundred people in Blackpool about 20 years ago. [Dundee Evening Telegraph 25 March 1931 page 7].

Reference    Builder 27 March 1931 Page 595
Reference    Builder 10 April 1931 Page 684
Reference    Builder 10 April 1931 Page 689 Manchester - not readable
Reference    Dundee Evening Telegraph 25 March 1931 page 7