The Rex, Art Deco movie theater in Berkhamsted, England
The Rex is an Art Deco cinema in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, designed by architect David Evelyn Nye and opened in 1938. The building features high ceilings, tall vertical windows, and a curved concrete canopy over the main entrance.
The cinema opened in May 1938 with a screening of Heidi starring Shirley Temple, built on the site of an Elizabethan mansion called Egerton House. Decades later, a campaign by local residents helped prevent its demolition in the 1980s.
The Rex screens independent films and classic titles in a room that still looks much as it did when it first opened. The mix of seating and cocktail tables gives an evening there a social, unhurried feel that differs from a standard multiplex visit.
Booking ahead is a good idea as the hall has a limited number of seats and fills up fast, particularly at weekends. A membership scheme gives regular visitors priority access to reservations.
The building received its Grade II listed status in 1988, making it one of the few cinema buildings from that era in England to carry such protection. A careful look inside reveals original decorative details from the 1930s that survived the decades between opening and restoration.
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