£6.75m renovation of historic cinema nearing completion (From The Northern Echo)

£6.75m renovation of historic cinema nearing completion

3:02am Monday 7th April 2008 in News By Neil Macfarlane

A HISTORIC North-East cinema is to reopen next month after a £6.75m renovation project.

Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema - the UK's only surviving news reel picture house - has been extended, with a new screen, and fully restored to showcase the building's art deco features.

The Tyneside, which opened in 1937 and is one of the region's few independent arthouse cinemas, will screen its first film next month after nearly 18 months of work.

"We're very excited," said chief executive Mark Dobson.

"The cinema was beginning to show its age and we really needed to extend it just to fit everybody in. The building is at the stage where you look at it and see that it is changing rapidly.

"When it's finished, we will be able to show more films than ever before."

The restored cinema in Pilgrim Street will have three screens - after an auditorium was built in an extended top floor - a new bar, office space and lecture rooms for educational courses.

Final touches are being added to the project and the cinema is expected to re-open by the end of next month.

During the renovations, the Tyneside has been screening films at the Old Town Hall, in Gateshead.

When plans for the restoration were announced in 2006, the theatre received good luck messages from film legends including Lord David Puttnam and Mike Figgis - who praised the cinema for showing arthouse and foreign language films ignored by the big cinema chains.

Mr Figgis, the Newcastle-born Oscar-winning director, said: "As a teenager on Tyneside I saw many great films at this cinema and, as the multiplexes began to flourish, I feared the worst.

"I gladly gave my support to the place and have always believed that it has a viable position within the culture of the North-East, both for now and the future."

Mr Dobson said workers discovered Thirties design features that had been lost for decades during the restoration.

"The first three floors have been fully restored and we have uncovered lots of bits of history that had been lost," he said.

"We found some fantastic mosaic floors and lovely ceiling decorations. All of that will be brought back.

"We're getting into the final stages now and we can't wait to re-open."

The project was funded by organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Northern Rock Foundation, and donations from individual film fans and cinema members.

For more information on the cinema, visit tynecine.org or call 0191-232-8289.