Restored cinema wants to add honours to its rave reviews

Oct 5 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

“It is exactly the kind of recognition that the cinema, its staff, the architects and all its patrons deserve after all of the effort that has gone into making this restoration possible and the cinema a huge success.”

Since reopening, the Tyneside has welcomed over 500,000 visitors into its restored building and sold over 200,000 cinema tickets, and it is hoped that the award nomination will encourage more people to visit the venue.

The Tyneside Cinema, and its architects Fletcher Priest and Cyril Winskell will find out if they have won the award at the Stirling Prize ceremony in London on October 17. A day earlier the cinema will hear if it has won the coveted Project of the Year prize at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards ceremony .

Earlier this year the cinema took a trio of prizes at the RICS North East Renaissance Awards at Newcastle Civic Centre.

The cinema opened as the Bijou News-Reel Cinema and was designed and built by Dixon Scott, great uncle of film director Ridley Scott.