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One of Agatha Christie’s favourite old seaside haunts is a step closer to reopening.
Devon’s Paignton Picture House, the crime author’s favourite cinema on the south coast, has been awarded a Historic England grant of £675,246.
The money will fund restoration and engineering work being undertaken to restore the Grade II* listed picture palace to its former glories, reports the BBC.
The newly renovation cinema is scheduled to reopen in September, with the new funding enabling the cinema to restore its mosaic floor, original ticket offices and art deco lighting.
‘[This is] a very significant grant which will further enable us to restore and repair this historic building,’ Paignton Picture House trustee Julian Carnell tells the BBC.
According to Historic England’s regional director Rebecca Barrett, the grant represents ‘another big step towards its future as a thriving cultural hub’.
Paignton Picture House first opened in 1914 as an art nouveau 450-seat cinema. Christie once had her own balcony there, and is believed to have used it as the inspiration for a fictional cinema in her crime novels.
It’s been closed since 1999, but thanks to this grant and £3 million in funding in 2022, the new restoration will see it reopen as a film, arts and community hub later this year.