Rex Cinema

davepring on June 23, 2014 at 10:36 am

One of the finest single screen cinemas in the world!

HowardBHaas on July 28, 2013 at 6:45 am

No comments here since 2008? The current “Endeavor” TV show about young Inspector Morse takes place in Oxford in 1965. In the “Fugue” episode he is seen in a cinema auditorium. Where was it actually filmed? I photographed the scene on my TV & Ken Roe identified it as this auditorium.

Ian on October 25, 2008 at 1:06 am

Sorry, I have not been able to locate any report of the opening which gives the colour scheme.

I did find a Hansard report from 1998 which the then MP asked the Minister to have the Rex de-listed and replaced by sheltered housing!
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1. Mr. Page

If he will visit the Rex cinema in Berkhamsted. [32897]

The Minister for Film and Tourism (Mr. Tom Clarke)

I have no plans to visit the Rex cinema. If it were currently showing a good British film, I might be temptedâ€"but, as the hon. Gentleman knows, the Rex has been closed for years.

Mr. Page

I am disappointed that the right hon. Gentleman will not visit the Rex cinema. As he has rightly said, it has been closed for some years. It is in a dilapidated state; £2 million is needed to glue it together. Berkhamsted is an attractive town and the Rex cinema, in the middle of it, is an eyesore.

As I said, £2 million is needed to repair the cinema. If it is used for cultural purposes, it will require £100,000 to £200,000 a year in subsidies. Will the Minister either provide the £2 million that is needed to bring the cinema back to its former glory and the £100,000 to £200,000 a year to maintain it or allow the frieze around the screen and the plaster shells on the sideâ€"which, as the Minister will know from his 1930s days are the sort of features that have given the Rex its listingâ€"to be stored elsewhere? Better still, will the Minister take steps to remove the listing, allow the site to be developed for sheltered housing and take the pressure off the green belt, which is so badly needed in Hertfordshire?

Mr. Clarke

I have no intention of intervening. It is true that my Department has received letters, but only two have been opposed to the listing. One such letter was from the hon. Gentleman on 19 May 1997, in which he enclosed a letter from the developers. However, the local authority, the Friends of the Rex, the Ancient Monuments Society and the Cinema Theatre Association all support the listing. The hon. Gentleman will know that there is a presumption in favour of the preservation of listed buildings. We support that view.

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Ian on October 20, 2008 at 12:39 am

The photos linked in this report were taken in October 2008, many have a link in the text below the photo to an earlier 1988 picture taken from approximately the same spot.

I had the opportunity to tour the re-opened Rex last week and was astounded at the superb restoration that has taken place here. Necessity has required that some compromises have been made, the large car park to the rear of the cinema has been used for new build flats, which together with the former shops and original flats (which have an additional penthouse floor added), has funded the restoration. Also the original foyer and café have been splendidly returned to “as-new” condition, but no longer service the cinema, being an up-market bar and restaurant named “The Gatsby”.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2955662123/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2955662509/

However when you take a look in the auditorium you can forgive almost anything! This is undoubtedly one of the very few cinemas remaining in the UK where you can really watch a film in true 1930’s glamour, anyone who claims to prefer a multiplex having only ever experienced a run-down tripled movie palace should make a beeline to the Rex to see first hand the true delights of cinema.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2956508010/

The cinema is now entered through, it has to said, a slightly awkward new set of doors, punched through the side wall at circle foyer level. The circle lounge was always the weakest part of the Rex â€" a long narrow squat corridor with toilets, storage and a managers office on one side and a pair of vomitory entrances to the auditorium on the other. You now enter at the former dead-end of the corridor and the space has been opened up to provide seating and a bar, following the underside of the balcony to give an impressive height. At the other end the ceiling has been raised but the ladies and gents have been retained and a box office constructed at where you would have originally come through from the main double height foyer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2955663041/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2956507774/

Both vomitories are used and access to the cinema is now at circle level. In the balcony every other row of seats have been removed and the steppings built up to provide luxurious amounts of legroom â€" so much so that tip-up seats are not required and well upholstered fixed armchair seating replaces them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2955664219/

At the front sides of the balconies discrete new staircases have been constructed to give access to the former stalls area which now sports a bar with tables and individual chairs instead of the more usual rows of seats. The projection room is now accesses through the auditorium, in a rtaher small door, and the exterior iron stairs have been removed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2956507220/

No attempt to recreate the original colour scheme has been made â€" the cinema is now a dramatic mix of red, black and gold, which really highlights the amazing plasterwork and art deco features that remain just as David Evelyn Nye designed them back in 1937/8.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/2955663891/

The Rex was grade II listed in 1988, the year that it closed as the developers circled, eyeing the site for redevelopment. For once the authorities refused attempts to de-list and demolish the building, insisting that the auditorium remain as far as possible. For sixteen years this building lay unused, unheated, vandalised and branded an eyesore. The formula, so successful here, will not of course work everywhere, but the Rex Berkhamsted is a shining example of what CAN be achieved in the face of developers or pub chains who want to destroy the UK’s cinema treasures for a quick profit.

HowardBHaas on December 14, 2007 at 5:13 pm

Proscenium Arch:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackstonr/2110306963/

Ian on August 19, 2007 at 7:44 am

And an exterior from 1975 here:–

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Ian on January 29, 2006 at 3:35 am

Photo of auditorium plasterwork here (pre-renovation).

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