Ilkeston’s Scala Cinema is celebrating 113 years since it first opened its doors beside the Market Place.
The Scala Picture House welcomed its first audiences on 4 September 1913 and remains in use as a cinema today.
One of the most recognisable buildings in Ilkeston town centre, it is also considered one of the earliest surviving purpose-built cinemas still operating in Britain.
Built for the age of moving pictures
The Scala was Ilkeston’s first purpose-built cinema and reportedly cost around £5,000 to construct and equip.
It was designed by Parsons and Sons of Bulwell and built by Derby firm Pegg and Bailey.
The original auditorium could accommodate approximately 1,000 people, with 900 seats in the stalls and 100 in the circle. Customers using the front stalls had their own entrance and paybox on Burns Street.
That capacity has since been considerably reduced, but the Scala remains a traditional single-screen cinema.
The building was constructed on land that had formed part of the burial ground belonging to the Independent Chapel on Burns Street. The chapel itself, erected in 1849 on the site of an earlier place of worship, survives and was later converted into apartments.
An ornate Edwardian building
Behind the Scala’s elaborate frontage is a relatively plain brick auditorium, but the section facing the town centre was designed to make an impression.
Its Edwardian Classical façade incorporates Hathern terracotta, Ionic columns, decorative swags and scrolls, and a large arched entrance. A cartouche containing a female figure sits near the top of the central gable.
Inside, several important early features survive.
These include its original proscenium, barrel-vaulted ceiling, decorative ventilation grilles, plaster fruit motifs and Ionic capitals embellished with cherub heads. The elaborately decorated balcony front also remains.
Historic England’s official record even notes the survival of gas secondary lighting at the rear of the auditorium. The projecting sound box was added when equipment for talking pictures arrived around 1930, providing evidence that the Scala was originally created purely as a silent cinema rather than as a combined cinema and variety theatre.
Protected for future generations
The Scala was awarded Grade II* listed status on 6 November 1986.
Grade II* buildings are regarded as particularly important and represent only a small proportion of all listed buildings in England.
Historic England describes the Scala as one of the earliest purpose-built cinemas in the country still in use. Local histories commonly describe it as Britain’s second-oldest working purpose-built cinema, although that precise national ranking is difficult to establish conclusively.
The cinema underwent a substantial refurbishment around its centenary in 2013. Work included new seats and carpets, a replacement screen, improved sound equipment and digital projection.
A new chapter
Reel Cinemas, which had operated the venue for a number of years, announced that ownership would pass to Premiere Property from 5 September 2025.
The existing team remained and the venue returned to using its familiar Scala identity. It continues to screen new releases, family films and occasional classic titles.
Ilkeston once had several cinemas, but the Scala is the town’s only surviving building still used for its original purpose.
Although film technology and cinema-going habits have changed beyond recognition since 1913, audiences are still gathering beneath the Scala’s decorated ceiling 113 years after its first performance.