Latitude: 51.5918 / 51°35'30"N
Longitude: -3.7791 / 3°46'44"W
OS Eastings: 276856
OS Northings: 189606
OS Grid: SS768896
Mapcode National: GBR H4.BS62
Mapcode Global: VH5H1.G801
Plus Code: 9C3RH6RC+P9
Entry Name: Plaza Cinema
Listing Date: 4 August 1999
Last Amended: 7 September 2000
Grade: II
Source: Cadw
Source ID: 22136
Building Class: Recreational
Also known as: Plaza Cinema, Port Talbot
ID on this website: 300022136
Location: On the corner with Eagle Street; to NE of Parkway Station.
County: Neath Port Talbot
Town: Port Talbot
Community: Port Talbot
Community: Port Talbot
Built-Up Area: Port Talbot
Traditional County: Glamorgan
Tagged with: Cinema
Built in 1939. Opened Easter 1940, but due to war completion delayed.
Modernist style with Art Deco influences. Front elevation in cream faience tiling with band in eau-de-nil; leadwork scallops below capping of parapet; tiles painted black beneath canopy. Projecting central block with partially obscured tripartite window (metal glazing bars), projecting turrets to ends; side elevation to R has 2 broad windows on 2 levels (metal glazing bars where visible); side elevation to L has 3 windows at upper level, and broad window below. Walls to sides, screening body of cinema, also faced in faience. Original full-width canopy, entrance doors boarded over; to each side, doors and semi-circular convex shopfronts. Plain roughcast side elevations with tall ribs and small windows infilled with concrete. Large lean-to to rear.
Outer doors lead to lobby, terrazzo steps (inscription "Plaza"), lead to central group of 3 sets of doors with horizontal glazed panels, long brass handles, glazing above; similar single set of doors to each side of central group. Foyer has cornices with art-deco decoration, cream and eau-de-nil floor tiles; stair to each side, ticket booth at entrance to auditorium. Auditorium has ceiling with square panels, some with ventilator grilles, some (original?) lamps; moulded cornice. Moulded proscenium surround to stage and screen area. Balcony area retains its seating; seating removed from stalls.
Listed as a very rare example in Wales of a building type which expresses the distinctive architectural vocabulary of 1930s cinema architecture, and whose interior has escaped subdivision or major changes.
External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.
Other nearby listed buildings